Queen Camilla’s Sister Annabel Elliot Has Been Her ‘Rock’ During Her Difficult 2024

Queen Camilla has had a troublesome yr, between her husband King Charles’ most cancers prognosis, her personal well being points — together with a battle with pneumonia — and the lack of her canine, Beth.

Among her fiercest supporters is her sister Annabel Elliot, who The Sun reported has been the Queen’s “rock” when she wanted it essentially the most.

Elliot — who is eighteen months her sister’s junior — is one in every of Queen Camilla’s “companions,” a extra modernized time period for “lady-in-waiting.” The sisters’ shut bond was on show in behind-the-scenes footage from King Charles’ coronation within the BBC documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year, the place in a single scene Elliot, who was one in every of Camilla’s coronation attendants, obtained emotional as she watched her older sister head to Westminster Abbey to be topped queen.

“When I thought back to being 2 years old and watching the Queen’s [Elizabeth] coronation on a tiny black and white television, and there goes this golden coach with my sister in it,” she mentioned.

“I can’t explain the feeling, because it’s so surreal. This cannot be happening. It was quite a moment,” Elliot added.

Of the King and Queen’s May 6, 2023 coronation, “Going into the Abbey, I think I had that nervousness all the time,” Elliot mentioned. “She’s quite a bit smaller than I am. I’m feeling, ‘Is she going to be alright?’ ”

As youngsters, the 2 sisters did every part collectively, “from going to the same schools to attending the same Pony Club events,” The Sun reported. As they grew older, the sisters attended the identical events and married inside a yr of each other, happening to welcome youngsters on the identical time.

After Camilla’s marriage to her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, led to 1994, the sisters took a visit to Venice, Italy, the place they loved portray and different bonding actions. The Sun reported that each sisters share an inventive streak, and that Elliot had a profitable profession as an inside designer, with one in every of her main purchasers being Charles and Camilla themselves.

The former Prince Charles introduced Elliot on as chief designer of his estates following his marriage to Camilla in 2005. Elliot was paid via the Duchy of Cornwall, which Charles managed till he grew to become King in September 2022 following the demise of his mom, Queen Elizabeth. Elliot was reportedly paid a number of hundred thousand {dollars} for her work over time, together with adorning and updating properties throughout the Duchy’s luxurious rental cottages in Cornwall, Wales and the Isles of Scilly. When Prince William took over the Duchy of Cornwall — the royal household’s 700-year-old property designed to supply earnings for the inheritor to the throne — the Prince of Wales, 42, opted to not convey Elliot again for her design companies within the 2023-2024 yr.

“Sources confirmed that Prince William would not make use of Ms. Elliot, though it was no reflection on her work,” The Telegraph reported. Sources added that Elliot’s work was thought of full and employees had realized sufficiently from her. 

Elliot was a part of an important second within the relationship between the previous Prince of Wales and the previous Camilla Parker Bowles — after understanding each other for over 25 years, it was at Elliot’s fiftieth celebration at The Ritz in 1999 the place Charles and Camilla lastly appeared collectively as a pair in public.

The sisters have misplaced their mom, Rosalind Shand, in 1994, their father, Bruce Shand, in 2006 and their youthful brother Mark in 2014. Elliot had simply misplaced her husband of over 50 years, Simon, within the leadup to Charles and Camilla’s coronation. “This meant that Annabel was arranging the funeral of her dear late husband at the same time she was preparing for the grand occasion at the Abbey,” in response to The Sun.

Of her sister, Elliot mentioned, “She’s somebody who is completely loyal,” including Camilla, 77, “isn’t somebody who has huge highs and lows.”

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Camilla’s yr started along with her husband Charles, now 76, present process a process for a benign enlarged prostate; most cancers was detected in the course of the process, and on Feb. 5 the King introduced his prognosis publicly. His actual sort and stage of most cancers stay unknown to the general public, although the palace did verify earlier this yr that it’s not prostate most cancers.

Camilla’s workload upped as her husband primarily labored from dwelling till his first front-facing responsibility since asserting his most cancers prognosis on April 30. Her stepdaughter-in-law Kate Middleton was additionally recognized with most cancers earlier this yr, and the rollercoaster yr that was 2024 additionally included Camilla’s personal well being battle — hers with a viral chest an infection that brought on her to overlook many Remembrance occasions in November, in addition to the Royal Variety Performance on the finish of the month. The demise of one in every of her Jack Russell Terriers, Beth, capped off a troublesome yr that did finish on a constructive word — her son, Tom Parker Bowles, mentioned that he could be spending Christmas at Sandringham along with his mom for the primary time, the place the royal household sometimes spend the Dec. 25 vacation.