Queen Camilla was the victim of an attempted sexual assault as a teenager and fought off her attacker using the heel of her shoe, according to a new book about the monarchy.
Valentine Low's 'Power and the Palace', serialised in the Sunday Times, recounts the incident. The Queen told Boris Johnson about the attack while he was Mayor of London, a position he held from 2008 to 2016.
Low, a former royal correspondent for the Times, spoke to Johnson's former communications director Guto Harri, who recalled Johnson describing the meeting at Clarence House around 2008. Harri said the pair 'got on like a house on fire', with Johnson making 'guttural noises' about his admiration for Camilla.
Harri added: '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 …'
According to Harri, when Johnson asked what she did, Camilla replied: '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.'
The Queen, 78, has long campaigned against domestic violence and sexual abuse, dedicating her royal charity work to supporting victims. She previously championed the idea of washbags for people who have been attacked, an initiative recently revived.
