JAN MOIR: Does Camilla’s epic devotion to Charles really deserve a queendom?

In less than a month, Charles will be crowned king and Camilla will be his queen. However you look at it or think about them as a couple, the journey through the years that has brought them to this point has been amazing.

No Hollywood screenwriter would dare put it on paper, no moviegoer would ever believe it. For despite all that life, death and the stifling weight of monarchy have thrown upon them, they have endured.

Looking at them now, in the sunset of their years, it’s easy to forget that beneath the genteelness and gray hair beats one of the most passionate love stories of the time.

The star-crossed pair met in 1970 and were photographed walking through a polo field two years later. As they talk in the shade of that giant oak tree, you sense that something is up – and it turned out to be.

This handsome young prince could have chosen from among the aristocracy, but chose the married wife of an army officer. A man not only known and loved by the Royal Family, but also a man who had been a pageboy at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Awks.

Even this didn’t deter the lovers, who began the dangerous affair that would later emotionally crush Charles’s virgin bride, scandalize a nation, and lead to the humiliation of the Tampax bonds and much more.

As the years go by, this deeper relationship wreaks havoc, but just like Dr. Zhivago and Lara just can’t give them up on each other.

It leads to divorce on both sides and ultimately, at least in the history books, plays a propelling role in the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Or at least, however unfair, in the eyes of many. At this point, and in the mourning that followed, some couples would have given up. Enough is enough, they might conclude, wondering if the candle was worth burning the flame.

Charles and Camilla could have retreated to the comfort of their separate estates, bottled damsons, talked to the flowers, and counted their blessings.

Like Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter, they could have said goodbye at destiny’s train station, never to meet again.

But that’s not what happened, as Charles and Camilla testify to the power of what men and women can hold in their hearts.

They even dared to get married in Windsor in 2005, which took some guts. I remember there was great concern that they would be booed if they appeared outside St. George’s Chapel after the blessing. And how Camilla’s golden hat from Philip Treacy echoed the shape of a crown – a sly promise of her future status.

Camilla as queen? That can’t happen, can it? Eighteen years ago we were promised it would never happen, perhaps in an act of contrition that acknowledged the adulterous roots of their relationship and the pain it had caused others.

Camilla becoming queen was to suggest that Diana was just collateral damage on this mutual route to the throne, but here we are.

Over the past year, the public has had to get used to the idea of ​​Camilla as queen incarnate, step by step, statement after startling statement.

We can be forgiven for feeling a little cheated, as it seems clear that this is exactly what Charles always wanted; that for him the idea of ​​being king without the woman he loves as queen by his side was unthinkable.

Maybe they both feel like they’ve been through so much together that it’s the least they deserve, and maybe they’re right.

These days, he’s a totally twinkling grandpa, while she’s all sly corset dresses and determined blonde hair, still as insanely matted as she was at Charles’ first wedding. There, deep inside the church of St Paul’s, she watched the man she loved marry someone else, God knows what that must have felt like. Yet she and he still persevere.

Their was and is a great obsession, one that got them through the worst of times.

Sometimes from infidelity comes the greatest fidelity; sometimes it’s not right to love someone, but nothing can stop you from doing it anyway; sometimes people just do the wrong thing, marry the wrong person – should they be condemned forever for the sin of being human?

Charles and Camilla found each other and couldn’t give up on each other and in the end they should take credit for their dedication.

But does the power of love really entitle former Mrs. Parker Bowles to a queen? Because she is his lady. And he is her husband. And when he reaches for her, she will do everything she can.

Good for her, but my question is, should it all lead to Camilla being called Her Majesty?

And perhaps the even bigger question, as the modern monarchy moves ever closer to irrelevance, is this: Does it still matter?

Honestly. When will Harry and Meghan decide? Will they come to the coronation or not? Have they booked their tickets to travel on Leper Airways in pariah class and are they planning to come to Westminster Abbey for the full Petulance Experience in their self-proclaimed role as sulkers-in-chief? Or will they stay at home on the Costa del Huff?

The suspense is killer – as in killer hilarious. Especially since Harry believes Persona Non Grata, as written on his coronation invitation, means someone who doesn’t like grated cheese on his pasta.

Perhaps, like rock acts negotiating a gig at Glastonbury, Harry and Meghan are still working out a deal with the Palace. No to being positioned behind a pillar in the abbey, yes to the reception afterwards. No to third place on the bill and a clear no to bows.

This is because Meghan believes the practice is a medieval construct designed to oppress women. Unless women take a bow to her – in which case fine.

Speaking of which, it’s just amazing that Meghan is getting a humanitarian award — from her unlikely friend Gloria Steinem — for empowering women and girls. Yes, Meghan’s existence must have enriched the lives of many easily impressed women, but it doesn’t seem to have been every woman’s experience.

There have been claims (strongly denied) from crushed Palace staffers; a humiliated queen; the attempted humiliation of the Princess of Wales; the sudden icing of former best friend Jessica Mulroney; the resignation of her half-sister Samantha. . .

It seems that at least some women have felt less than uplifted by their interactions with Meghan.

Rupert Murdoch gave his new betrothed a diamond the size of a walnut and separated from her two weeks later.

What? There’s a bunch of daffs on my kitchen table that survived the couple’s passion.

Reports suggest that born-again Christian Ann Lesley Smith was “too evangelical” for Rupert. Perhaps, at 92, the media mogul just wants a quiet life. Fair enough, but will Ann Lesley keep her £2 million engagement ring? A woman of such deep faith would surely give it back, even though she felt she had already earned it.

Barge accommodation has been confirmed for male asylum seekers – and of course immediately denounced as grotesque and brutal by the usual suspects.

Yet we cannot continue to house people in hotels at taxpayer expense – it is economically unviable in both the long and short term. The situation cannot continue and it is not racist or inhumane to say so. But on Newsnight, Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council desperately wrung his hands over these suggestions, insisting that everyone deserved to be treated with respect. Agree, but he also hoped that these 500 ship-bound young men could be “incorporated into the community” instead.

Well, in an ideal world that would be great – but which community and where? No answers came. Others of the same mind offer no solutions, only endless condemnation of government policies. Meanwhile, everyone in the real world understands that something needs to be done.

A barracks on a barge is not an ideal situation – in fact, it looks like a tinderbox of problems – but warring ministers trying to tackle the problem should be given a chance.

Many mailboxes across the country are decorated with crochet Easter toppers by fugitive crocheters in the community – isn’t that beautiful and charming? NO, THAT’S NOT IT.

I want to be honest. These crochet toppers look insane and ugly, made at midnight by unhinged people – and I speak as someone who once knitted the entire royal family.

If you get a lot of pleasure and comfort out of crocheting, that’s great, but I don’t think your creations should necessarily impose on the neighborhood.

The charms of crafting are not infinite, you know. ASBOs everywhere for these woolly delinquents.