No wonder she's smiling: As Camilla takes centre stage with the husband she's lifted from gloomy introspection, will she soon be queen in all but name

By Richard Kay

PUBLISHED: 16:37 EST, 10 May 2013 | UPDATED: 02:03 EST, 13 May 2013

All in all it has been quite a week for the Duchess of Cornwall — from handing out prizes at the Badminton Horse Trials to a reception at the London headquarters of Vogue magazine, a venue you would scarcely have associated with a woman who once admitted having only one evening dress in  her wardrobe.

Yesterday she was best buddies with the Queen at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, the two women wreathed in smiles after greeting one another with kisses. And then, of course, there was that spectacular showing at the State Opening of Parliament: her first and most significant appearance at such a key event in royal life.

Shimmering in a champagne- coloured lace-and-silk gown designed by Bruce Oldfield, who made his name dressing Princess Diana, Camilla looked positively regal in a vast diamond-encrusted tiara loaned for the occasion by the Queen.

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On sparkling form: The Duchess of Cornwall in a tiara lent by the Queen for this week's State Opening of Parliament

The effect was exquisite, just as it was meant to be as she sat on her mini-throne alongside the Queen and Prince Philip. Matronly she may be, but here was Camilla, a queen-in-waiting.

Suddenly, all that talk of skipping a generation so that the crown could bypass a middle-aged Prince of Wales for his handsome son, has — at least for the time being — been stilled.

In fact, we are seeing a subtle alteration in the delicate balance of monarchical responsibility with the Queen scaling back her public duties and Prince Charles taking a bigger role.

This week it was announced that, in a 40-year first, she will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference. Instead, Charles will take her place at the two-day event in Sri Lanka in November. So, now, we can see a future with Charles a co-monarch in all but name and Camilla assuming queenly duties at his side.

This is quite an achievement for a woman who was being pelted with bread rolls in a supermarket car park not so many years ago.

Indeed, such has been the speed of the former Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles’s transformation from pariah to princess, it is scarcely credible that only eight years ago there was so much uncertainty surrounding her marriage to Charles that it was thought it might damage his prospects as king irreparably.

Camilla and The Queen at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, where the pair both seemed happy to see each other - years after Her Majesty allegedly called her 'wicked'

Relaxed: Camilla was the figure of whom the Queen had once told her son she never wished to talk, and whom she described as 'that wicked woman' - but that is now a distant memory

 VIDEO  Queen is all smiles with Camilla at Windsor Horse Show 

Queen and Camilla appear closer than ever at horse show

This, remember, was the figure of whom the Queen had once told her son she never wished to talk,  and whom she described as ‘that wicked woman’.

All that, of course, is now a distant memory. But overcoming royal reservations was one thing; convincing a sceptical public who still saw her as the woman who destroyed Diana’s marriage was another.

For a time it was a case of one step forward and two back. A strategy of being low-key led to accusations that Camilla was work-shy, especially after she was cattily labelled the ‘laziest woman in Britain.’ Why, critics asked, was it necessary for her to maintain her former family home when Charles had access to so many, and taxpayers’ money was needed to guard it?

In fact, keeping hold of Raymill House, 17 miles from Highgrove, has proved crucial in keeping Charles and Camilla’s marriage balanced.

The arrival of the Duchess of Cambridge and the glamorous Middleton family has not led to any rivalry, but simply provided Camilla with a way to seem somehow more traditionally regal. She also adores having much less of the limelight.

One particular episode last month made this clear. Kate paid a visit to Holt, the charming north Norfolk market town not far from Sandringham. She was looking to buy furniture and other knick-knacks for her apartment at Kensington Palace.

But she chose to go there on a busy Saturday and it didn’t take long for word to get round. She began to draw crowds as she wandered in and out of shops. The traffic came to a standstill and some paparazzi turned up.

It is noticeable that at public engagements, a bejewelled Camilla seemed to glow while the prince sometimes looks miserable

A local figure and a close friend of the royals tells me: ‘Holt was in a frenzy. It was, ‘Did you see her, where did she go, did you know?’ that kind of thing.

‘I know that Camilla often drops in to Holt — and she probably told Kate which were the nice antique shops to look at — but she always makes a point of not going at a busy time.’

The mania that surrounds William and Kate has taken the pressure off the former countrywoman who remains happiest in casual mufti, despite the fine couture and fabulous jewels that have come her way as wife of the Prince of Wales.

She does draw the crowds from time to time, of course, especially when she and Charles are abroad. Alongside the prince she is often the more jaunty presence.

Indeed, it was noticeable at this week’s State Opening of Parliament that while a bejewelled Camilla seemed to glow, the prince looked miserable.

‘There are two reasons — one it’s his default face, it just falls that way,’ says a chum. ‘But also it’s a hangover from being overshadowed by Diana.’

And Camilla? ‘Well, she doesn’t particularly like all the ceremonial stuff — I mean who could enjoy getting toffed-up in all that stuff at 11 o’clock in the morning — but she’s decided to just get on with it.’

Yet Camilla enjoys her public duties — mainly because she has been able to help charities she is interested in.

Camilla enjoys her public duties ¿ mainly because she has been able to help charities she is interested in

Also, Charles gives her a lot of ‘slack’, so she has free time and her own space. That’s why her sanctuary of Raymill is so important. She gets a break from what they call the ‘royal stuff’ and she can host her grandchildren in a less  formal setting. The friend says: ‘This means she doesn’t panic that Charles will be cross, which might be the case if the children were clambering all over his priceless possessions at Highgrove. It means she can enjoy the full granny bit.’

‘But, this will undoubtedly change when Charles himself becomes a grandparent for the first time this summer. ‘He’s looking forward to it,’ says the friend. ‘But Camilla thinks the Middletons are going to be number one granny and grandpa.’

Behind the prince’s gloomy features, Camilla has managed to boost his moods. This has been quite a triumph. He is far less self-absorbed and more open to other people’s concerns.

As a long-standing adviser says: ‘It’s quite a change, his life is an ocean of calm compared to what it used to be. He is even grateful that William and Kate take so much of the spotlight now.’

Camilla’s arrival to join the Queen at the horse show was sign of how relaxed she, too, has become. Normally a bundle of nerves in the presence of the woman she refers to as ‘the top person’ and whom she calls ‘ma’ma’, had taken another leaf out of her book. She was brandishing a see-through umbrella, a favourite prop of the Queen.

Meanwhile, as they adjust to the demands of their new role, which starts when they stand in for the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in November, there have also been some shifts around the couple closer  to home.

William and Harry are moving their office across London to their childhood home at Kensington Palace, where they both now live.

The Duchess Of Cornwall holds the feet of 14 week old Theodore Bradshaw as his mother Teula Bradshaw looks on during a charity tea party for supporters of Maggie's Centres at Vogue House, London

At Clarence House, meanwhile, a new communications secretary chosen by Charles and approved by Camilla is starting. Sally Osman, who used to work for ex-BBC chief Greg Dyke, is the first woman to hold the position. It is likely to lead to a relaxation in the often tense relations that have existed between the prince and the outside world for the past few years.

Several men had been under consideration for this crucial role, including former Times editor James Harding — now the BBC’s director of news — PR man Howell James and Tom Bradby of ITN.

But Camilla wanted a woman and, as in so many other things, what Camilla wants, Camilla gets. Sally Osman, however, is a shrewd appointment and she will be good for the prince. Camilla has learned the hard way the importance of positive public relations.

Two months short of her 66th birthday, the woman who once looked so careworn and hunted radiates contentment. Some even wonder if she’s had a facelift.

‘She may look like it, but she hasn’t,’ says a close friend. ‘She does have lots of facials and other treatments — we think she may have had laser treatment for facial rejuvenation — but there’s definitely been no surgery.’

Says another friend: ‘She’s simply the least vain woman I know and would never have a facelift. Apart from anything else, her husband would hate it.’

The new official arrangements that will see a promoted Charles and Camilla occupying the ground that has for so long been the Queen’s has thrown up talk of a de facto regency.

It now seems possible that the woman who was once seen as a threat to the monarchy may be the stabilising figure in its long-term security.

Even the Queen, who not so long ago observed archly that she would not be around to see a coronation at which Camilla would take her place at Charles’s side, now privately acknowledges that things couldn’t have turned out much better thanks to the former Mrs Parker Bowles.

No wonder that smile yesterday was so broad.