Queen Camilla’s grandson has no idea of the coronation occasion as he prepares to take on the role of honorary page, his father has revealed.
Tom Parker Bowles, a food critic and Camilla’s son, revealed on the News Agents poscast that 13-year-old Freddy will likely enjoy the day, especially since he’ll be playing the part with some of his closest friends.
However, when it comes to the historic role he will play at the ceremony at Westminster Abbey on May 6, Tom said his son’s biggest concerns these days are “about the Spurs manager.”
The 48-year-old father-of-two revealed that despite being related to the Queen, he has always shielded his son from the spotlight, as have Queen Camilla’s four other grandchildren.
Elsewhere in the interview, the food critic balked at any suggestion that his mother marry King Charles for any reason other than love, in what may have been a response to Prince Harry’s claims in Spare that Camilla had “played the long game ‘.
Tom Parker Bowles, the son of Queen Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles, revealed at the coronation ceremony next month that his own son Freddy is “more concerned about the Spurs manager” than his Page of Honor role.
Speaking to Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis this week, Tom, who is also a father to a daughter, Lola, said of his son, “I don’t think he has any sense of the occasion.
“He’s a 13-year-old boy who loves football, a Spurs supporter… So his worries are about the Spurs manager and losing when we’re done and things like that.
“There is no reason at all for our children to be in the press and that is why we have purposely kept them away from anything related to it…
“I think there will be a lot of rehearsals before he does it with his cousins, his two best friends and my first cousin’s son, so they get to know each other.”
Queen Camilla has previously revealed her close bond with her grandchildren, including her emphasis on family moments such as gathering around the dinner table.
Elsewhere in the interview, food critic and writer Tom Parker Bowles praised his mother and stepfather, who will be crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6, for doing an “amazing job”
Ahead of her 75th birthday last year, she told Mail+ she was worried about how social media and technology risk eroding family values.
She said, “Families no longer sit together, do they, and eat.
“Because I’m old, we used to all sit together [to eat]. Now everyone is on their devices. It just makes me pretty angry!’
The grandmother of five added that when she goes out to dinner with her grandchildren, she lets them put away their “flickering” phones.
However, in the same interview, Camilla admitted that she had joined apps like Houseparty and TikTok during the lockdown so she could better keep in touch with her grandchildren.
Speaking this week, Tom Parker Bowles revealed that it wasn’t “weird” to think of his mother as the Queen, saying, “She’s still my mother…I think there’s a change happening, but it might make me don’t care what anyone says.
“This wasn’t some kind of endgame, she married the person she loved, and this is what happened.”
Earlier this year, Prince Harry claimed in his memoir Spare that his stepmother “played the long game” to get his hands on the crown.
He wrote of Camilla, “I have complex feelings about getting a stepparent who I thought had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.”
Harry also said that he and his brother William “begged” their father not to marry Camilla because they feared she would become their “wicked stepmother.”
In another punch, Harry described Camilla as “dangerous” and a “bad guy” who left “bodies in the street” in her desire to change the public’s perception of her.
The writer, whose father is Camilla’s first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, added that it wouldn’t change their lives at all and it would be “terrible” if he became a duke.
He said, “You won’t find us with great estates and the duke of anything.” No, that would be terrible.
‘I’m nothing. There would be a revolution if they start handing them out to people like me. No. Why should I expect one?’
He added of his mom and stepdad, “I think they’re doing a great job. I think King Charles is a good, kind, intelligent man who cares deeply about his roles, wherever they may be, Prince of Wales, the King.
“He is way ahead of his time in terms of sustainability, food security, agriculture, pollution, all those things. But people called him a bit crazy and eccentric 20 years ago.
“Everything he talked about is now things that have gone mainstream that we’re really concerned about right now. He uses his position, as far as I’m concerned, to do good.’