Queen Camila recounts story of attempted assault for first time: 'I did fight back'

For the first time, Queen Camila has discussed how she was “so angry” after being attacked on a train when she was a teenager.

She said that the incident had “lurked for many years” and that she “fought back” in an interview with Today on BBC Radio 4.

She was joined by John and Amy Hunt, Theresa May and Emma Barnett for the conversation.

She recounted: “Somebody I didn’t know – I was reading my book and this boy, man, attacked me, and I did fight back.”

“And I remember getting off the train and my mother looking at me and saying, ‘why is your hair standing on end?’ and ‘why is a button missing from your coat?'”

“But I remember anger, and I was so furious about it, and it’s sort of lurked for many years.”

“And I think, you know, when all 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,” she continued.

After hearing the Queen share her story, Amy said: “Thank you for sharing that story first, Your Majesty, because that takes a lot to share these things because every woman has a story.”

The Queen also praised John Hunt and his daughter Amy in the interview, saying their family would be “so proud of you both” after their family, Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah, 28, and their mother Carol, 61, were killed by Louise’s ex-partner Kyle Clifford.

In the recording, the Queen said: “I’d just like to say, wherever your family is now, they’d be so proud of you both.”

“And they must be from above, smiling down on you and thinking, my goodness me, what a wonderful, wonderful father, husband, sister. They’d just be so proud of you both.”

Mr Hunt said a year on after his family was killed it “remains really difficult on a minute-by-minute basis”, adding “but you have to try and find the strength in our position to arm yourself with as many tools as possible that are going to help you get through that next hour, get through that next day.”

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