Queen Camilla ‘won William over with charm offensive,’ but was ‘bored’ in…

The dynamic between a divorced father’s children and their stepmother can sometimes be awkward, especially when one of them is the heir the throne. But Camilla has worked hard to endear herself to Prince William, says Royal commentator Richard Eden.

On the latest edition of his podcast ‘Reading the Royals’, Eden tracks the gradual warming of relations between Camilla and William.

However, Prince Harry’s autobiography ‘Spare’ paints a different picture of their relationship, describing his stepmother as being disinterested in forging a relationship with him, while she was busy winning over Prince William with a “charm offensive”.

The future queen certainly made strides in building rapport, particularly with William, as evidenced by a photograph from the inaugural Invictus Games in London in 2014 where they were seen sharing a laugh.

A decade later, according to Eden, their bond remains strong, having both faced tense health worries for their partners.

However, Prince Harry was not won over. He recalled in ‘Spare’: “I have a dim recollection of Camilla being just as calm (or bored) as me,” adding, “Neither of us much fretted about the other’s opinion.

“She wasn’t my mother, and I wasn’t her biggest hurdle. In other words, I wasn’t the Heir. This bit with me was mere formality.”

Harry disclosed that he and William had “begged” their father not to wed Camilla, as they were concerned about potential comparisons to their mother, the late Princess Diana.

Harry wrote: “Willy and I promised Pa that we’d welcome Camila into the family – the only thing we asked in return was that he’d not marry her. ‘You don’t need to remarry,’ we pleaded. The pair told the future king that “A wedding would cause controversy.

The Duke of Sussex also sheds light on Camilla’s efforts to reinvent her image in his memoir, claiming she is “someone who married into this institution and has done everything she can to improve her own reputation, her own image, for her own sake.

Harry reflects upon the transformation of his Clarence House bedroom into Camilla’s dressing room with a touch of bitterness: “I tried not to care,” he confesses, “But especially the first time I saw it, I cared.”

Camilla herself shared her experiences with Royal life, noting in a piece penned for Vogue ahead of her 75th birthday: “It’s not easy. I was scrutinised for such a long time, but you just have to find a way to live with it.”

She concludes with resilience: “Nobody likes to be looked at all the time and criticised – but I think in the end I sort of rise above it and get on with it you’ve got to get on with life.