Buckingham Palace is set officially to describe Camilla as ‘Queen’, rather than ‘Queen Consort’.
The change is likely to come after King Charles’s coronation in May, according to well-placed sources.
It will set the seal on a remarkable transformation for Camilla in the nation’s affections.
When she married the then Prince of Wales in 2005, it was widely assumed she would never be called Queen when he acceded to the throne.
That was because of her longstanding relationship with Charles while he was married to Diana, who famously said in her Panorama interview: ‘There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.’
But Camilla has won around the public, and the late Queen’s intervention in February last year when she called for her daughter-in-law to be known as ‘Queen Consort’ is seen as a crucial show of support.
Now Buckingham Palace is set to go further, according to insiders.
The first sign of the new approach came last week when Camilla launched the ‘Queen’s Reading Room’ – without the ‘Consort’ – when she updated the name of her charity, the Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room.
It is thought that the Court Circular – the official register of Royal engagements – may also soon reflect the change.
A well-placed source said: ‘There’s a view in the Palace that Queen Consort is cumbersome and it might be simpler for Camilla to be known just as the Queen when the time is right.
‘The Reading Room was a sign of that. Her Majesty is the Queen after all.
‘Prince Philip was Prince Consort officially, but he wasn’t known as Prince Consort. The Queen would of course still be Queen Consort so the Palace of course wouldn’t stop anyone calling Her Majesty that if they so chose.’
Some news outlets, including The Times and The Telegraph, have already dropped ‘Consort’ when writing about Camilla.
Buckingham Palace officials have been looking at precedent, including the titles used for the wife of King George VI, Charles’s grandfather.
As a non-reigning Queen, George VI’s wife was technically Queen Consort but was known in public simply as Queen Elizabeth.
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