Camilla’s 75th birthday marked by release of official photograph
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An official picture has been released to mark the Duchess of Cornwall’s 75th birthday.
Camilla is pictured looking relaxed and smiling in the image released for her milestone anniversary she celebrates on Sunday, which follows a busy week for the royal.
In the image, the future Queen Consort is sat at a garden table with flowers and plants in the background and a tea cup and saucer before her and a bowl of peaches.
The duchess has guest edited the latest edition of Country Life magazine and her son, food writer Tom Parker Bowles, has penned a paean to the fruit, the essential ingredient in one of his mother’s favourite desserts peach melba.
Mr Parker Bowles writes: “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 picture was taken last month in the gardens of Raymill, Camilla’s retreat in Lacock, Wiltshire, where the photographed peaches were grown.
She bought the six-bedroom property, 17 miles from the Prince of Wales’ Highgrove home, after her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles in the mid 1990s.
The duchess is wearing a blue floral dress from Sophie Dundas in the photograph taken by Getty Images.
Her 75th birthday will be celebrated on Sunday with a small family dinner, Clarence House has said.
It is likely Charles will host the evening get-together and guests are likely to dine at Highgrove.
Camilla’s daughter Laura Lopes and son are expected along with her younger sister Annabel Elliot, who featured in an ITV documentary following Camilla as she took the reins of the magazine.
The programme, which was screened this week, revealed that Camilla buried a young Annabel’s beloved teddy bear, known as Tiddy Bar, in the grounds of their grandparents’ home and only confessed years later.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the duchess revealed the she has embraced the social media world of TikTok thanks to her grandchildren – while Charles reads to the youngsters and puts on all the voices.
Camilla laments how family meals are a thing of the past, and everyone is now on “their devices”.
Speaking to the newspaper, the duchess said: “Families don’t sit down any longer, do they, and have dinner.
“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.”
