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‘Sisters, sisters, there have never been more devoted sisters… I am here to watch over you… In all kinds of weather, we stick together…’ wrote Irving Berlin.
And never has it been more appropriate than when it comes to Queen Camilla and her younger sister, Annabel Elliot.
The sisters, born just 18 months apart, not only bear a striking resemblance to each other, but they also talk to each other every day.
Some compare their closeness to that of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, whose bond was forged under unique circumstances.
Annabel Elliot in BBC’s Coronation Year, broadcast on Boxing Day
Camilla, four, and her sister Annabel, two, photographed together in 1952.
Camilla with her little sister Annabel Shand
Or even Annabel to Anne de Charles.
And it was no surprise that Mrs Elliot was one of the few people given permission by Buckingham Palace to speak about their relationship and the coronation for BBC One’s Boxing Day documentary about the king’s first year.
Their union was cemented by an idyllic childhood in Sussex, where they spent their free time galloping on ponies across the South Downs alongside their charismatic brother Mark Shand, who tragically died in 2014 after a fall.
As a young woman, Camilla loved the debutante circuit, while Annabel was much more serious and preferred a quieter life. “She was very successful, but I certainly wasn’t,” she said of her sister. “I probably wasn’t as confident as she was.”
After school, she went to Florence to study art, followed by a successful career as an antiques dealer and interior designer, while Camilla launched herself into country life as the wife of her first husband, the handsome army officer Andrew Parker Bowles.
But the couple stayed as close as any siblings could be, talking to each other almost every day.
Annabel and her husband, the businessman and landowner Simon Elliot, settled in a beautiful country house in the village of Stourpaine, Dorset, where Charles and Camilla met discreetly at weekends when they renewed their relationship after the breakup of their respective marriages.
Annabel and her husband, businessman and landowner Simon Elliot, settled in a beautiful country house in the village of Stourpaine, Dorset.
Camilla and her sister Annabel arrive at Highgrove for Prince Charles’ 50th birthday celebrations.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the two women even joined the short-lived House Party app so they could stay in touch during lockdown.
Annabel Elliot and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall attend the Robin Hasse v Andy Murray match on day four of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at Wimbledon on July 2, 2015.
The late Simon Elliot with his wife Annabel Elliot after attending a memorial service for his father, Major Bruce Shand, in 2006.
Guests, including the King, attended the funeral of Simon Elliot at Holy Trinity Church, Stourpaine in Dorset.
It was no coincidence that Mrs Elliot was seen leading her sister away from the hordes of waiting photographers when John Major announced the separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1992.
And it was at her 50th birthday celebrations at the Ritz in 1999 that Charles and Camilla first formalized their relationship, posing together for their first public photographs on the hotel steps.
The Elliots even joined the newlyweds when they honeymooned in Scotland after their 2005 wedding.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the two women even joined the briefly-lived House Party app so they could stay in touch while in lockdown, sources told the Mail at the time.
Mrs Elliot suffered immense grief as she tragically lost her husband of 50 years after a long illness in March, just weeks before her sister’s coronation.
King Charles was among the mourners at Simon’s funeral in Dorset, and police helped block the road as the cortege made its way through the streets.
This was a break with the past. Charles’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth, rarely attended funerals except in the most exceptional circumstances.
Despite the loss, Annabel was still by her sister’s side during the coronation in May, wiping a tear from her cheek as she watched Camilla drive away from Buckingham Palace in her golden carriage.
The two women are so close that they even have the same taste in clothes, whether it’s for a day at the races or formal dresses.
Queen Camilla’s dress was a carbon copy of the dress worn by Mrs Elliot, 74, when she took the lead role as bridesmaid for the coronation in May.
Annabel Elliot keeping her Fiona Clare dress out of puddles on Coronation Day
Always at her sister’s side, Annabel fixes Bruce Oldfield’s coronation dress
In fact, if you thought that a white dress by couturier Fiona Clare (a designer Annabel introduced to Camilla, naturally) that Her Majesty wore to the Diplomatic Corps reception last month looked strikingly familiar, you’d be right.
It was a carbon copy of the dress worn by Mrs Elliot, 74, when she took the lead role as bridesmaid at May’s coronation.
The private has occasionally seeped into the professional, with Annabel being controversially employed by the Duchy of Cornwall when King Charles was Prince of Wales as an interior designer, working on dozens of commercial properties and holiday lets, as well as Dumfries House in Scotland. .
His contract was never commercially tendered.
The Mail understands that it has also recently been contracted to carry out work on the King’s property in Sandringham, as well as to “renovate” several commercial properties in Balmoral, including a major expansion of the castle’s gift shop.
Many would have expected her to become the Queen’s companion, Camilla’s six close friends who have replaced the more traditional bridesmaids at Buckingham Palace as her aides and guardians.
But there’s a very good reason why he hasn’t, according to one source.
‘First of all, she plays the role of being his sister. “Which sounds silly, but that’s exactly why she’s not the Queen’s Mate,” they said.
Annabel greets Prince Charles in Poundbury in November 2004
Camilla, left, walks the dog with her sister Annabel and her friend in Sandringham in 2008.
Opening of the Duchess of Cornwall pub in Poundbury with her sister Annabel
Camilla and Annabel at The Chelsea Flower Show in 2007
“It was a very deliberate decision, because neither of them wanted the balance of their relationship to be affected by a formal role.”
Another adds: “It’s funny because most people focus (their attention) on their friends, but it’s Annabel who, above all, is their rock.” The Queen has good instincts, as does her sister, and trusts and trusts her implicitly.
“I’m not sure she (Camilla) would have been able to get through what she’s been through over the years without Annabel by her side.”