Royals

Camilla calls it quits

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, may have stopped smoking, but she always has time for a pint.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, may have stopped smoking, but she always has time for a pint of beer.

She may have given up smoking, but Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall hasn’t gone on a complete health kick, as she proved when she happily sampled a pint of ale last week. She and Prince Charles were on a visit to Wales when they called into the community-run Raven Inn pub and tasted the local brews.

Camilla pulled her own pint of Trickey Whu, while Charles opted for the aptly named Prince of Pales beer. But there was no quick puff of a ciggie – Camilla has reportedly finally been able to quit her longtime smoking habit.

“Camilla has worked really hard to give up for good,” says a source. “She cut back to three a day, and never touched one before 6pm. Gradually, she found the cravings subsided and was able to go without any.”

Charles is said to be delighted with his wife’s efforts to quit. He’s been a fierce anti-smoking campaigner for many years, his abhorrence of tobacco possibly due to seeing the toll it took on the health of his aunt, Princess Margaret, who smoked 60 cigarettes a day. She had numerous health problems and suffered several strokes.

Charles once admitted he did try smoking when he was 11, but gave up after a few sneaky puffs behind a chicken coop.

Not craving nicotine should make life easier for Camilla, who celebrates her 68th birthday this week, when she and Charles (66) make the long plane journey to New Zealand later this year. The couple will be visiting our shores in November, three years after their last trip. That visit, to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, was a resounding success and according to Prime Minister John Key, it was decided there should be more frequent royal visits here, to build on the “close and special links” between New Zealand and Britain’s first family.

Watch Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall showing off her dancing skills in Christchurch on the final day of the Diamond Jubilee Pacific tour:

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