Queen Camilla Bravely Shares Sexual Assault Story From Her Teens

Queen Camilla has spent years championing causes relating to domestic abuse and sexual violence against women, and this time, she’s decided to come forward with a scary story from her past.

Queen Camilla Reveals She “Fought Back” Against An Abuser From Her Teens

Camilla, 78, unraveled a segment of her past on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as part of the ongoing discussion on violence against women.

The location of this particular story against the then-future Queen happened on a train to Paddington, West London, in the 1960s. The attacker was standing beside her on the train, when he suddenly made his move.

She recalled being on her way to meet her mother Rosalind Shand when “this boy — man — attacked me”, adding “I did fight back.”

She said: “I remember something that had been lurking in the back of my brain for a very long time. That, when I was a teenager, I was attacked on a train. I remember at the time being so angry.”

This incident was first publicly recounted in royal biographer Valentine Low’s ‘Power and the Palace,’ where a detailed account informed us that the young Camilla had deterred her assaulter by striking him in his private part with a shoe.

Low received this piece of intelligence from Boris Johnson’s former communications director Guto Harri, who recalled a meeting between the royal and the former British Prime Minister in 2008.

He shared: “But the serious conversation they had was about her being the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a schoolgirl. She was on a train going to Paddington – she was about 16, 17 – and some guy was moving his hand further and further …”

When Johnson inquired as to how she handled the situation, she revealed at the time, “I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.”

Harri added: “She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me,’ and he was arrested.”

A huge chunk of Camilla’s work as a royal has revolved around supporting victims of sexual assault. She is also passionate about introducing the joys of reading to children and revitalizing interest in theaters and like local entertainments.

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