Queen Camilla speaks for the first time about fighting back against a teenage train assault, praising a family’s resilience after a tragic murder.
LONDON: Britain’s Queen Camilla has publicly described fighting off an attacker on a train when she was a teenager.
In a pre-recorded BBC radio interview broadcast on Wednesday, the 78-year-old royal said the assault in the 1960s had left her “furious”.
“It’s been lurking in the back of my brain for a very long time,” she said.
“I was reading my book, and you know, this boy, man, attacked me, and I did fight back.”
She recalled her mother’s surprise after the incident.
“I remember getting off the train and my mother looking at me and saying, ‘why is your hair standing on end?’, and ‘why is the button missing from your coat?’,” Camilla added.
Details of the assault were published this year in the book “Power and the Palace” by former Times royal editor Valentine Low.
The book reports that Camilla told former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2008 she used her shoe to hit the assailant, following her mother’s advice.
The Queen made the comments during a discussion about violence against women and girls.
She was speaking with BBC sports commentator John Hunt, his daughter Amy, and former Conservative prime minister Theresa May.
Hunt’s wife Carol and his two younger daughters were murdered in a crossbow and stabbing attack at their home in 2024.
The Hunts have since set up a memorial fund to raise money for charities helping young women.
Camilla, who is patron of the domestic abuse charity SafeLives, praised John and Amy Hunt.
“Wherever your family is now, they’d be so proud of you both,” she told them.
She added that hearing such stories was “something that I feel very strongly about”.
