Queen Camilla’s ‘Funny’ Family Nickname King Charles Hated
Formally, she’s Queen Camilla. But for years before, when the 76-year-old was behind closed doors with family, she was known as something else. According to a new royal biography, the queen’s family gave her a cheeky moniker in reference to her current title. While Queen Camilla got a kick out of the nickname, King Charles III reportedly hated it.
Queen Camilla’s family nicknamed her ‘Lorraine’ after a certain French word
In The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, author Robert Hardman revealed that before taking the throne alongside her husband of nearly 20 years in 2022, Queen Camilla had a humorous nickname from her family.
Relatives called her “Lorraine” from the French “La Reine,” meaning “the queen,” according to an excerpt published in the Daily Mail. It was a nod to where Queen Camilla was headed in the British royal family and where she now resides.
Queen Camilla “always saw the funny side of that,” a friend told the author in the book of the nickname. King Charles, however, not so much. “Prince Charles,” they said, “did not” see the humor in it.
Camilla’s grandchildren call her ‘Gaga’
Nicknames are all over the royal family. Just look at Prince William, aka “One Pint Willy.” Or his youngest son, Prince Louis, 4, whom Prince George and Princess Charlotte call “Lou Lou.”
Queen Camilla’s no exception. She, too, has a nickname. Except it’s typically reserved for her grandchildren. (She has five of her own in addition to five step-grandchildren from King Charles.)
Instead of going by “grandma,” “Gran,” or “Granny,” Camilla’s grandkids refer to her as “Gaga,” her former daughter-in-law, Sara Parker Bowles, revealed in a 2023 interview.
She has three grandsons, Freddy Parker Bowles and twins Gus and Louis Lopes, and two granddaughters, Lola Parker Bowles and Eliza Lopes.
Camilla is ‘not the queen’ or ‘your majesty’ to her family
Becoming queen when King Charles took the throne in 2022, the one-time Duchess of Cornwall received a few more nicknames. She could be referred to as “the queen” and/or “your majesty.” However, her family doesn’t use them.
Camilla’s sister, Annabel Elliot, who spoke to Hardman for his book, shared that she and other relatives steer clear of formalities. Describing her sister’s status in the royal family as “totally surreal,” Elliot said she “find[s] it very hard to curtsy to her. And call her ‘Your Majesty’? That I can’t do.”
“She’s a wonderful mother and grandmother,” Elliot said of Queen Camilla. “She’s very, very hands-on. All our children have grown up very much together. It’s almost like one family, so she’s back to being her normal self when she’s with all of us. I mean, she wouldn’t get away with it otherwise!”
“There’s quite a bit of irreverence: ‘You’re not the Queen to us,’ and so on,” she added. “There’s quite a lot of all that — thank God.”
Queen Camilla was crowned on May 6, 2023, alongside King Charles at Westminster Abbey in London, England, during a televised ceremony.
