UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Queen Camilla has praised the courage of BBC racing commentator John Hunt and his family following the killing of his wife and two daughters.
The Queen also discussed her experience of an indecent assault as a teenager in public for the first time during a talk with John and his surviving daughter, Amy.
The Queen was speaking at a conversation about violence against women on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, which was guest edited by Baroness Theresa May, the former prime minister.
The Queen told the BBC that she was “so angry” and “furious” over the attack, which was initially detailed in a book earlier this year.
She claimed that although she had “sort of forgotten” what had occurred to her, the Hunt family’s bravery had inspired her to talk about her experience.
“This boy-man-attacked me”
when she was traveling to see her mother, she recalled, adding,
“I did fight back.”
“I remember something that had been lurking in the back of my brain for a very long time,”
the Queen told them.
“That, when I was a teenager, I was attacked on a train… I remember at the time being so angry,”
she said.
The Queen recalled getting off the train and
“my mother looking at me and saying: ‘Why is your hair standing on end and why is the button missing from your coat?’ I had been attacked.”
She added:
“I was so furious about it and… when the subject about domestic abuse came up, and suddenly you hear a story like John and Amy’s, it’s something that I feel very strongly about.”
Power and the Palace, a book published earlier this year by former royal editor of the Times newspaper Valentine Low, contained the first account of the indecent assault.
The Queen was 16 or 17 years old when the incident occurred on a train headed for Paddington Station, according to the book.
It stated that Camilla Shand, who was then a teenager, struck the man with the heel of her shoe after he touched her. According to the book, she told station employees about the incident when she got to London, and the man was taken into custody.
When the incident was first reported, Buckingham Palace did not issue a formal statement.
The conversation centered on the Hunt family’s grief, resilience, and will to preserve the memory of Carol, Louise, and Hannah, who were all killed by Kyle Clifford at their Hertfordshire home in July 2024.
Education is essential to guaranteeing women’s safety, according to Mr. Hunt, his daughter, Baroness May, and Queen Camilla. Additionally, they were all concerned about young males becoming radicalized online.
According to her, guys who lack “the best examples in life” frequently turn to the internet for advice, discovering “easy answers” in individuals such as self-described sexist influencer Andrew Tate.
Mr. Hunt claimed to have been “surrounded by fantastic men, fantastic role models” all of his life.
“To have this very dark world open up to me in the starkest possible fashion has been jarring and something I’ve had to navigate very quickly – I’ve had to educate myself,”
Speaking about her work with victims of domestic abuse, Queen Camilla stated that preventing young men from becoming abusive spouses as adults must be the main priority.
“They may have had parents or relatives who’ve been abusive or done terrible things to them. So they’re almost brought up to believe that it’s a natural thing to do,”
she said.
What details did the Queen share about her own assault memory?
Queen Camilla said that as a teenager, around age 16 or 17, she was attacked on a train to Paddington by an unknown man who assaulted her while she read a book.
She fought back fiercely, feeling” so angry” and” furious,” using tone- defense tutored by her mama striking him with her shoe heel; upon appearance, her disheveled appearance( hair standing on end, missing fleece button) scarified her mama , and she reported the bushwhacker to a uniformed officer, leading to his arrest.
Reported during a December 2025 BBC Radio 4 moment broadcast with John Hunt and Amy, inspired by their story, Camilla noted the memory had” lurked” until domestic abuse conversations resurfaced it, fueling her advocacy work.