Queen Camilla's unexpected royal role model revealed

Queen Camilla is often hailed as a rock and central support system to her husband King Charles, and someone who thrives in her role as a royal consort.

And it seems that before she took on the role of Queen, she looked to her late father-in-law, the Duke of Edinburgh , for inspiration.

In an exclusive interview with HELLO! to celebrate Camilla's 77th birthday , author, podcaster, and friend of Her Majesty, Gyles Brandreth, revealed: “A couple of years ago, I hosted a lunch for Queen Camilla's 75th birthday.

© Getty

"The Queen made a good speech about her role in the future and said she was going to use the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, as her role model. She quoted his mantra, which was simply: 'Look up, look out, say less, do more, get on with the job.'"

Gyles quipped: "My wife said to me recently: 'You keep quoting this, Gyles, but you don't seem to be saying less at all – you seem to be saying more as the years go by.' But I am trying to do more and get on with the job."

Camilla and Gyles's shared passion

The 76-year-old author shares the same passion for literature and reading as Camilla and is a founding trustee of the Queen's Reading Room.

"For the Queen, it's a passion project, and one of the reasons why she's proving so successful in her role is because everything she does is authentic," he said.

"She's taking on things she genuinely cares about, whether that's a military thing – her father was in the army and a very important figure in her life – through to women's issues .

" She is passionate about literacy . Reading has made a big difference to her in her life. It's easy to talk about in theory, that reading is good for you, but how do you make that happen?"

© WPA Pool

Finding answers to that question is one of the reasons Gyles became a patron of the literacy charity Schoolreaders, which provides volunteers to primary schools to give one-to-one reading support, as well as help children develop their skills and confidence.

Each week, 27,000 children receive free support from the volunteers.

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