The Duchess of Cornwall turns 75 on Sunday – and a new official photo has been released to mark the occasion.
Camilla is seen smiling and wearing a blue floral Sophie Dundas dress in the picture, in which she is sat at a garden table with flowers, plants, some peaches, and – most importantly – a cuppa.
The bowl of peaches is significant, as her son – food writer Tom Parker Bowles – has written an ode to the fruit in Country Life magazine.
The duchess has guest-edited the latest issue, which reveals one of her favourite desserts: peach melba.
A column written by her son reads: “My mother is a keen grower of white peaches (the subject of this month’s column was very much her idea) and they certainly don’t want for attention.”
The peaches were grown where the new photo of Camilla was taken – the gardens of her Raymill country retreat in Lacock, Wiltshire, some 17 miles from the Prince of Wales’ Highgrove home.
She bought the six-bedroom property after her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles in the mid-1990s.
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Highgrove is the likely setting of what Clarence House said would be a small family dinner to celebrate Camilla’s birthday.
Camilla’s daughter Laura Lopes and son are expected to attend, along with her younger sister Annabel Elliot, who featured in an ITV documentary following Camilla as she edited Country Life.
The programme aired this week and revealed Camilla buried a young Annabel’s beloved teddy bear, Tiddy Bar, in the grounds of their grandparents’ home and only confessed years later.
Elsewhere, the duchess used an interview with the Daily Mail to reveal her grandchildren introduced her to TikTok, although seemed to lament people’s growing obsession with “their devices”.
“Families don’t sit down any longer, do they, and have dinner,” she told the newspaper.
“Because I am ancient, in the old days we all sat down (to eat). Now everyone is on their devices. It just makes me quite cross.”
