Queen Camilla reveals the sweet secret to happy marriage with King Charles after 20th anniversary

Queen Camilla has revealed the secret to her happy marriage with the King is “laughing at the same things”. The couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary today on the third day of their royal tour of Italy.

While the King made history by becoming the first British monarch to address the Italian parliament, Camilla was on hand to chat to local schoolchildren and share her love of the country she visited with her family as a child. With her hand covered in icing after officially cutting a cake to mark the British Council’s 80th birthday, the Queen looked happy and relaxed as she chatted amiably about her wedding anniversary at a school in Rome.

Laughing at her pigeon Italian - confessing she only knew the phrases “buongiorno” and “arrivederci” for good morning and goodbye”, Camilla reminisced on their marriage lasting two decades. “Twenty years, who could believe it was 20 years?” she said.

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In an interview with UK print media on the trip, Camilla was asked the secret to their long lasting union which at one time threatened the fabric of the monarchy. She said: “What is the secret? I don’t know. Well, I suppose it’s just sort of friendship, really. Laughing at the same things, getting on with life. I suppose doing this [on a royal tour] takes up most of the time.”

Having spent most of the third day of their four day state visit on separate engagements to her husband, Camilla joked “we are always going in different directions, like ships that pass in the night really. We whizz past each other. In fact we have got a bit of a catch-up this afternoon!”

Celebrating their wedding anniversary after marrying on April 9, 2005, the Queen revealed she had managed to buy Charles a gift to mark the occasion, but the pair had agreed to celebrate properly when back home.
Camilla said: “Ah yes, well I have got something. Because it’s China.

“[But] we are going to do that when we get back. We are going to save that. Otherwise you can’t really, you have to rush it. You don’t have time to say anything. I think we might dig into our pockets and pull something out at the end of the day.”

Remarking how she had visited “lots of time” with her family who previously owned a house in Florence, Camilla joked how she would have liked some time away from the tour to enjoy the sites with Charles. She said: “It would be very nice if we got a day off and went somewhere but that was not going to happen!

“We used to come here as children. We used to go to Ischia, one of the lovely little islands off Naples, so I’ve always loved it here. You come to Italy and you feel better. They are so friendly. Everybody is so lovely.

“You’ve got the food, the , there’s something in the air. Everything tastes better here. “Why is it tomatoes, why is it pasta tastes better? You take it back to England it doesn’t taste the same. "They are a very relaxed [people] and happy.”

The King and Queen embark on the last day of their four day state visit to Italy with a trip to the city of Ravenna, in northeastern Italy, known for the colourful mosaics adorning many of its buildings.

In a romantic gesture, Camilla wore her original Guildhall wedding outfit in ivory silk by Anna Valentine, repurposed by Anna Valentine with additional embroidery by King’s Foundation artisan Beth Somerville.