With King Charles and Kate Middleton aside, will Queen Camilla live up to expectations?

LONDON — As illness sidelined two of Britain's most visible royal figures, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and King Charles III, Queen Camilla has filled the void.

He recently traveled to the Isle of Man to deliver a speech on Charles' behalf and met with public officials and community groups. She then flew to Northern Ireland, where she visited a bakery and a butcher shop, attended a literary event and accepted salutes at a military parade.

Camilla, 76, smiled for photographers. She did not reveal the strain of caring for a husband affected by cancer, nor that a day later Catalina would announce that she had also been diagnosed with cancer.

It's the kind of twist of fate that royal watchers savor: Camilla, whose existence once seemed to threaten the stability of the royal family, has emerged as a stabilizing force. At times, she has seemed as if she carried the entire House of Windsor on her shoulders.

“This is a vulnerable moment for the royal family, where their human weaknesses are on full display,” said Arianne J. Chernock, an associate professor of history at Boston University in Massachusetts and an expert on the modern British monarchy. “Camilla’s own background and training can help her in these circumstances.”

With her husband canceling public engagements while he receives treatment and Catalina out of action for the foreseeable future to undergo chemotherapy, Camilla has taken on high-profile duties. Her trip to Northern Ireland, scheduled before the King fell ill, thrust her into diplomatically delicate territory, given the territory's legacy of sectarian violence and her politically fragile government. Everyone indicates that she performed well.

In his energetic, no-nonsense style, he has reassured people that the King is fine and tried to project an air of normality. During her visit to the Isle of Man, when a mother picked up her baby, Louis, Camilla responded that she had a grandson, Louis, who, she said, was “very active”. It was a stimulating contrast to Catalina, who spoke in her video about the anguish of telling Louis and her two other children that she was sick.

For Camilla, this is another twist in her complex relationship with the public—one that has turned, if not into affection, then into acceptance. For royal historians, last year's coronation was the culmination of years of rehabilitation of the image of Charles and Camilla, who began a romantic relationship when she was Camilla Parker-Bowles. She had received much of the blame for Charles's failed marriage to Princess Diana, who died in a car accident in 1997.

But in the years since Carlos and Camilla married in 2005, they have worked to rebuild their image. Camilla became an active and obedient participant in real life. Nothing helped cement her status more than when Queen Elizabeth II, shortly before her death, laid out a roadmap for Camilla to become queen consort, ending years of uncertainty and speculation about her status. she.

“It's not that Elizabeth anticipated the series of challenges the royal family has faced in the past year, but she recognized that the monarchy is never just about the monarch, but about the family on the throne,” Chernock said.

“Now it's Camilla's time.”