Prince William’s decision to relieve Camilla Parker Bowles’ sister Annabel Elliot of her role as interior designer-in-chief of the Duchy of Cornwall has shone a rare shaft of light on the fraught relationship between the prince and his stepmother’s family, a tense matter usually kept out of the limelight.
For nearly two decades, the British press have largely ignored the strong whiff of nepotism involved in the appointment of Annabel, 75, Queen Camilla’s sister, as the head of interior design for the Duchy of Cornwall. The Duchy is always the current Prince of Wales’ private estate; this means that it was formerly the property of the then-Prince Charles and now belongs to William.
The apparent favor shown to Elliot has long been rumored to have never sat well with William and it is unsurprising to many who know him that he moved so quickly to shift her off the books. Annual accounts published last week revealed she was paid nothing in the 2023-2024 financial year.
A report in the Daily Telegraph stated that William’s decision to not renew her contract was not a reflection on the quality of her work, characterizing the decision instead as part of the evolution of the business as William took control.
Still, cynical observers have been quick to note, preferential treatment of trusted individuals is not completely out of vogue; William has now taken on one of his own close friends in a senior role at the Duchy:William van Cutsem, who has been named a senior adviser.
If the name is familiar to royal-watchers, it is because the van Cutsem family have regularly featured in accounts of royal life. His father, Hugh van Cutsem, who died in 2013 at the age of 72, was a friend and neighbor of Charles’, thanks to his Norfolk estate, Hilborough House.
Van Cutsem Jr, ‘VC’ to his friends, is a chartered surveyor who, to be fair, has built a distinguished career in property and investment—although it is undeniably his close personal ties to the British royal family, including being godfather to Prince George and a boyhood friend of William’s—for which he is best known.
But William’s parting of ways with Annabel is no great surprise to his friends. They say he has long sought to keep the entire Parker Bowles family at arm’s length. He is not close to Camilla’s children, Tom and Laura.
Indeed, one source, who is a mutual friend of the reluctant step-siblings, told The Daily Beast: “It is best to avoid mentioning Tom around William.”
Partly this stems from William’s nervousness about Tom’s “rather louche lifestyle as a Mayfair bon vivant,” the source said. Tom was famously caught admitting to using cocaine by an undercover tabloid reporter in 1999, long before his mother became queen.
The relationship between Camilla and William has, of course, been indelibly shaped by the legacy of Princess Diana. Camilla was perceived by Diana as the “other woman” in her marriage to Charles, and she is known to have discussed her marital issues with her eldest son, including Camilla’s role. It’s hard to imagine this didn’t create a predisposition for tension between William and Camilla from the outset. According to Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, William and Harry both begged their father not to marry Camilla.
Famously, after their first meeting in 1998, as related by the writer Penny Junor in her biography The Duchess: The Untold Story, Camilla is said to have remarked, “I need a gin and tonic!”
Given William’s general frostiness towards the wider Parker Bowles clan, the ejection of Annabel is no great surprise to insiders. While some might imagine the king would take offense at his son giving his sister-in-law the royal boot, one friend of Charles and Camilla told The Daily Beast that was far from the case.
“I think Charles has got bigger fish to fry than worrying about Annabel’s job prospects. The Duchy of Cornwall is William’s now. She is 75 and she is Queen’s Companion [Camilla’s new term for a lady-in-waiting] now, so she is very busy. Annabel and Camilla are very close.”
Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace did not respond to requests for comment.
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