King Charles to find ‘source of strength’ in wife Queen Camilla on Coronation Day

It seems like King Charles will be leaning on to his wife, Queen Camilla, for support during his upcoming Coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey next month.

The 74-year-old monarch have had decades to prepare for his ascension to the thrones, meanwhile, George VI had the crown thrust upon him after the sudden abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936. With the sudden weight of responsibilities on a stuttering man needing speech-making skills, George’s wife Elizabeth became his unwavering support.

Drawing comparisons of the dynamics of the two royal couples, royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told People Magazine, “The times were very different in 1937, but as was the case with George VI for very different reasons, Camilla is a source of great strength for Charles.”

Smith, who authored George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy, added, “As before, they were a very tight partnership, a very intertwined one, and that’s the case today as well with Charles and Camilla.”

She said in both cases they were “very different personalities, but in both instances the source of strength was important.”

However, Camilla, 75, was not born into royal life and had a late introduction to the rules and protocols when she married Charles 17 years ago.

“We are talking about two people who have been divorced and whose romance was fairly notorious, and that does bring along with it a whole different set of judgments and assumptions from others that were not the case in 1937,” she explained.

“George VI had taken the throne after his older brother wanted to marry a woman who had been divorced twice and was untenable in those days. That simply couldn’t happen in a religious or constitutional sense.”

She surmised, “Charles and Camilla have been through so much together. To the degree to which he will need reassurance, she will be there. Charles can stand in front of a group and be very comfortable about it — unlike George VI who had to really work on it.”