Queen Camilla was given a Barbie in her own image which she said had “taken 50 years off my life” as she hosted a Women of the World event at Buckingham Palace.
Looking at the youthful-looking doll, which was dressed in the same royal blue Fiona Clare dress, Amanda Wakeley black coat, Eliot Zed shoes and with a Launer handbag and Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet, the 76-year-old said: “Thank you very, very much indeed. Brilliant. You’ve taken about 50 years off my life.”
Camilla, who has been President of WOW since 2015, was joined by Mathilde, Queen of the Belgians, and the Duchess of Gloucester as she was shown around the WOW Girls Festival Bus, sponsored by Barbie manufacturer, Mattel.
The converted bus, which features a recording studio and a library, has been touring the country to promote gender equality among young people at schools and community groups.
[Mrs]Krista Berger, senior vice president of Barbie and Global head of dolls, had flown from Los Angeles to present the Barbie to Camilla, saying afterwards: “We were just tickled the Queen wanted to play Barbie.”
Sarah Allen, PR manager for UK Mattel, said: “We spoke to her office first to check she was happy to receive it and worked with her team on what she would like the doll to wear.”
The Queen met children in the Billiards Room before moving on to meet celebrity guests in the Bow Room at Buckingham Palace, including Dame Helen Mirren, the former Spice Girl Melanie Brown, her daughter Phoenix Brown, Dame Kelly Holmes, Emma Barnett, Dame Maggie Aderin, Natasha Kaplinsky, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon and Rachel Riley.
Giving a speech to mark the recent International Women’s Day on 8 March, Camilla said, “I would like to begin with a “show and tell,”” before holding up two stones which were thrown through the Palace windows during a Suffragette protest on 27th May 1914.
Holding them up for the guests to see, the Queen said: “The label on this one reads, “If a constitutional deputation is refused, we must present a stone message.” This one says, “Constitutional methods being ignored drive us to window smashing.”"
The Times reported two days afterwards: “Between 11 and 12 o’clock on Wednesday, two women succeeded in evading the sentries at Buckingham Palace and entered the quadrangle. They threw stones at the windows and broke two panes of glass before the sentries intervened. The women were taken to the police station in the precincts of the Palace, but the Master of the Household refused to prosecute and they were released.
“These stones were picked up and handed to Queen Mary, who decided to keep them for posterity. I thought today we might, to quote Shakespeare, find “sermons in stones.””
The Queen went on to quote the daughter of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, saying: “Let us recall these words of Christabel Pankhurst: “Remember the dignity of your womanhood. Do not appeal, do not beg, do not grovel. Take courage, join hands, stand besides us, fight with us.” To which I would only add: let your lives be the stones that will shatter glass ceilings everywhere and inspire generations to come.”
Dame Helen Mirren, who played the late Elizabeth II in the 2006 film The Queen, was at Buckingham Palace with her film director husband Taylor Hackford. She said of the new Queen: “I have always been a fan of Camilla, as she used to be known, and a supporter of hers in my very small, insignificant way but it was great to see her in this new role as Queen and to see that mantle falling on her shoulders, which must have been quite a surprise to her.
“As a young girl in England I’m sure she never in a million years imagined that this would be where she would find herself and it looks to me as if she’s doing it beautifully well.”
The WOW Foundation was created by Jude Kelly in 2018 to run the global movement of the Women of the World Festivals, which began in the UK at the Southbank Centre in 2010. It now spans 45 locations on six continents.
Ms Kelly took to the lectern after the Queen to thank Camilla for her involvement, asking the assembled guests saying: “She’s quite a leader, isn’t she?”