Queen Camilla Breaks Silence on Health Struggles After Battling Dangerous Pneumonia : she’s ‘still tired’

The Queen said she hopes to be able to turn the tide of domestic violence.

Camilla held a reception yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of Women’s Aid. At the event, she reiterated her vow never to stop campaigning on behalf of women who have survived domestic abuse. She added: “I have no intention, now I’ve started, to stop and I am determined to put an end to this.

“We have all got to pull together. You are all doing a wonderful job, and we will put an end to it, probably not in my lifetime, but in some of yours.” The Queen has recently suffered from pneumonia and has scaled back her work schedule in recent weeks as she takes time to recover.

She told charity representatives at the event: “I am still a bit tired. It catches up a bit”. Many attendees congratulated the Queen on the success of her recent ITV documentary, Her Majesty the Queen: Behind Closed Doors, which explored her many years of work in the field.

One of the survivors who took part was Alice Liveing, who was abused by her partner at the age of 16. Miss Liveing, who is now a Women’s Aid ambassador, said: “I asked how she was feeling. She said she was feeling pretty tired but was trying to juggle some bits.”

Despite her fatigue, the Queen made time to attend the reception at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, just a stone’s throw from Clarence House, where she hailed the strides made by the charity over the last five decades. Making some impromptu remarks before cutting a cake, she said: “If you think of what’s happening now compared to what was happening 50 years ago, you must all be incredibly proud.

“I think so many people hadn’t realised what domestic abuse was, especially then. It’s terrible that after 50 years, it still hasn’t been eradicated, but we are making progress.” The Queen told one guest: “I can’t support a charity just for the sake of it, I have to feel it.”

She told another that she did not think her ITV documentary would have been made as recently as ten years ago. Since the broadcast, Camilla said she had been inundated with letters, which had strengthened her resolve that the scourge of abuse would one day come to an end. “We’ll get there,” she said. “It will just take time.”

Women’s Aid ambassador Katie Piper, who survived an acid attack, said domestic violence was one of the most isolating and dangerous forms of abuse because it so often occurred behind closed doors, where silence could make it invisible.

She added: “Silence is exactly what organisations like Women’s Aid have worked so hard to shatter over the past 50 years. They’ve been the ones to say ‘you are not alone, you are not to blame’, and by doing that, they’ve created a sisterhood.

“It’s not just about offering a place of refuge, but it’s also about empowering women. Women’s Aid has been at the forefront of that, fighting for women’s rights, ensuring every woman who seeks help is not just given a safe place to stay, but also access to legal support, counselling and a path to independence.”

Nikki Bradley, head of services at Women’s Aid, said domestic violence was a public emergency. She added: “As a woman, you are over three times more likely to be killed by a partner than not wearing a seatbelt, but where are the public safety campaigns? Despite the urgency and severity of the threat facing our women and children, it is not being treated as a priority.”

Among the guests was broadcaster Kelle Bryan, who appears on Loose Women and is also a survivor of domestic abuse. “The documentary meant the world to us,” she said. “To see somebody of her ilk shine a light on something so dreadful.” Miss Liveing revealed she had met the Queen before the state visit to Australia and Samoa and that she had been worried about the heat. She said: “I asked how it was and she laughed and said: ‘It was very hot and humid.’”

Women’s Aid was founded in 1974, bringing together nearly 40 independent refuge services and creating a national network that allowed women and children in abusive situations to find a place of safety.

On Friday, 180 organisations provide nearly 300 services. Meanwhile, Prince Harry’s wife Meghan looked glamorous at a gala to honour the couple’s Hollywood pal Tyler Perry in Beverly Hills, California.