Queen Camilla Details Assault Experience On Train When She Was Teenager

Queen Camilla has opened up for the first time about her experience being attacked by a man on a train as a teenager.

Speaking to the BBC‘s Today program during a discussion about violence against women, the Queen detailed the assault that had been “lurking in the back of my brain for a very long time.”

When she was a teenager, she said that “a boy, I thought it was an old man at the time but he was probably not a great deal older than me,” had attacked her while she was reading a book.

She did not know the person and says she fought back. When she got off the train, Camilla recalled her mother “looking at me saying, ‘Why is your hair standing on end and why is a button missing from your coat?’.”

“I had sort of forgotten about it but I remember at the time being so angry,” she added. “I just thought why is this boy doing this.”

Earlier this year, a book by former Times royal editor Valentine Low first revealed the attempted assault, which the book said Camilla had told former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2008. It reported that the Queen had been 16 or 17 years old at the time, had hit the man with her shoe and had reported him at Paddington Station. He was then arrested. Buckingham Palace made no official statement on the story but didn’t dispute the details.

Camilla was speaking on the BBC this morning with another former UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, and John and Amy Hunt. Former BBC racing commentator John Hunt‘s wife and two daughters were killed in a crossbow attack last year by one of his daughters’ ex-boyfriends. The man, Kyle Clifford, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year and his crimes were described in court as being “fuelled” by the “violent misogyny promoted” by social media influencers like Andrew Tate.

Amy Hunt, who is John Hunt’s one surviving daughter, thanked Queen Camilla for sharing her story.

Camilla went on to say that the assault had “lurked for many years, and when the subject of domestic abuse came up, suddenly you hear stories like John and Amy’s and it is something I feel very strongly about and want to do something about.”

“A lot of people don’t know how bad it is out there,” added the Queen. “The majority of people don’t want to know. It’s been a taboo subject for so long, people haven’t talked about it. I thought if I’ve got a tiny soapbox to stand on I will stand on it and talk to people and get them together.”