Camilla’s family nicknamed her Lorraine before she became Queen
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Queen Camilla was given the nickname Lorraine by her family before she became Queen.
The play on the French word for Queen, La Reine, amused the then-Duchess of Cornwall, but not the then-Prince of Wales, now King, the Daily Mail reported.
Royal writer Robert Hardman, in his new biography, Charles III, said a friend of Camilla’s told him: “She always saw the funny side of that – even if Prince Charles did not.”
Debate over what Camilla’s title would be when Charles became King spanned nearly two decades.
Before Charles and Camilla’s wedding in 2005, royal aides said Camilla did not want to be Queen and “intended”, when the time came, to be known as Princess Consort instead, a title which has never been used before in British history, even though legally she would still have been the Queen.
Elizabeth II delivered a masterstroke in February 2022 when she publicly endorsed her daughter-in-law as Queen Consort in her Platinum Jubilee message to the nation.
Buckingham Palace began using “the Queen” instead of “Queen Consort” on the day of the coronation.
Hardman also said it took Camilla some time to adjust to her new role and realise that mentions of “Her Majesty” were referring to her.
The writer also described the King as having the potential to get “very cross about quite minor things” but that Camilla is a “strong voice of common sense in that regard”.
Camilla is also known to her grandchildren by the nickname GaGa.
