Queen Camilla will be seen as never before in a powerful new documentary exploring her work to raise awareness of domestic and sexual violence.
While monarchs, or the spouses of monarchs, have traditionally shied away from appearing on camera, the 77-year-old royal has instead chosen for the first time to front a powerful new programme, driven to highlight an issue she has spent more than a decade campaigning on after generations of it being swept under the carpet.
An estimated 2.1 million people aged over 16 in England and Wales have experienced some form of domestic abuse.
Shockingly, one woman is killed by a current or former partner every five days on average, with more than 105,000 children living in homes where there is a high-risk of domestic abuse.
Three women also take their own lives each week, unable to see a way out.
The Queen says she is determined to break the ‘taboo’ over the issue in the 90-minute documentary to be broadcast next week: ‘It’s so important to do something now.’
Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors sees cameras follow Camilla for a year as she meet survivors of domestic abuse and campaigners working to help victims and raise understanding of the issue.
It is understood she started off by agreeing only to a cameo appearance – preferring to focus on the victims and survivors – but becoming more confident at helping to tell the women’s’ stories as time went on.
She explains: ‘One of the most difficult things about domestic abuse, to understand, it’s not the bruises and the black eyes, which, unfortunately you see, through violence, this is something that creeps up very slowly and, far too often, it ends up with women being killed.
‘You meet somebody, you think they’re wonderful and attractive and love you…and then bit by bit, they start to undermine you. They take away your friends, they take away your family…and then when you start questioning it…these people become very violent.’
Among the women she speaks to is Chief Inspector Sharon Baker, a senior officer in Avon and Somerset Police who was herself, shockingly, a victim of serious domestic abuse for five years.
It was, she tells the Mail, a ‘classic’ case of ‘love-bombing’ interspersed with rage and coercive control, which left her forced to tip-toe round her ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ partner rather than incite his wrath.
When she finally found the strength to tell him her relationship was over there was a serious physical altercation and she ended up calling out her own officers for help.
‘I had to fear for my life before I called 999,’ she says.
By the time the police arrived she was, she says, a ‘hysterical, gibbering wreck’, while her partner was sitting calmly, dressed and ready at the table.
She feared no-one would believe her, but they did. However she chose for personal reasons not to pursue the incident through the courts.
In 2020, however, Chief Inspector Baker decided to go public for the first time in order to help others within her force by making a YouTube video speaking about her experiences.
After years of thinking she must have been the only woman in her position, she was shocked when 138 colleagues contacted her to say they, too, had been victims.
She told the Mail this week: ‘I hadn’t spoken out before because I didn’t think society or the force were ready to hear that a Chief Inspector could be a victim. And to be honest I was embarrassed because all these people looked up to me.
‘I was in the riot police at the time, going out to public disorders. I was a strong powerful woman. I was dealing with domestic abuse in the workplace and responding to it. And yet how could I not spot it in my own life?
‘I felt shame and embarrassment. How could I not see the signs?
‘No-one was speaking about it at the time. I felt like I must have been the only one. And I didn’t think policing or society was ready to hear it.’
The result of her speaking out, she says, meant the issue of domestic abuse went from ‘hushed conversations behind closed doors’ to one that became discussed more openly.
‘At the time I went though [my abuse], it was all hushed conversations behind closed doors. They [the police] didn’t know how to handle it,’ she says.
‘I hope by speaking out out it may show that domestic abuse doesn’t discriminate. I feel like have the privilege of using my voice when so many people don’t.
‘I want people to know you will be believed and there are places you can go where you will be safe.’
She added of Queen Camilla: ‘I think it, and she, are wonderful. How she uses her influence is fantastic. She’s very authentic and warm. This is not an easy topic, she’s not supporting an easy charity with fluffy puppies. This is very real.’
The Queen is also shown meeting Diana Parkes whose daughter, Joanna Simpson, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer by her estranged and abusive husband, whom she says has inspired her work.
Former prime minister and Home Secretary Theresa May, who finally made coercive and controlling behaviour a criminal offence in 2015 in a landmark legal move, also tells the film: ‘I think it’s incredibly important that Her Majesty shows an interest in this issue. We’ve come a long way…but sadly there is more to do.
‘The police get a call about domestic abuse once every 30 seconds.’
Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors will be shown on ITV1 and ITVX on November 11 at 9pm.
