Queen Camilla is said to have quit cigarettes in early 2001, just a few months after she was publicly seen with Queen Elizabeth II for the first time. For many, that shared lunch meant the royal family’s official acknowledgment of King Charles III and Camilla’s relationship. While her future husband’s distaste for cigarettes may have contributed to her motivation, Camilla quit because smoking was aggravating her allergic rhinitis, the Daily Mail reported that year.
She couldn’t cope with the lingering symptoms anymore. “She had a persistent cough which she couldn’t shake off,” one of her friends said. “It wasn’t connected to her smoking but she decided it was a good opportunity.” Camilla found the strength to stay on the right path thanks to a trip to the Himalayas earlier in the year accompanied by the controversial healer Mosaraf Ali. “She’s been trying to give up for as long as I have known her but this time she’s given up for good,” the friend said.
However, a different source later claimed Camilla didn’t completely give cigarettes up back then. “She cut it back to three a day and never touched one before 6 p.m.,” an insider told the Daily Mail in 2015. But the source said she quit that year. “Gradually, she found the cravings subsided and was able to go without any.” As with anything royal-family-related, it’s hard to know exactly when she gave up the habit completely.
