Queen Camilla Makes First Solo Outing Since Queen Elizabeth's Death for Key Cause

Even with a new royal role, Queen Camilla is continuing to support longstanding causes.

The royal, 75, stepped out at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London Thursday, marking her first solo engagement since becoming Queen Consort following the death of Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 8. Camilla visited to meet independent domestic violence advisors (IDVAs) and other frontline staff who respond to domestic violence cases.

The Queen Consort was welcomed by hospital executives and made her way to the maternity unit, which Buckingham Palace said acts as a "key hub" for women experiencing domestic abuse. She met Divisional Director of Nursing and Midwifery Vicki Cochrane, the Trust Domestic Abuse Lead Dr. Charlotte Cohen, the IDVA team, the Domestic Abuse Coordinator and other personnel.

Queen Camilla also privately spent time with people who have used the service at the London hospital.

From there, Queen Camilla connected with Suzanne Jacob, CEO of SafeLives, a U.K. charity that supports victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. The organization defines IDVAs as specialists trained to work with domestic abuse victims, responding to their immediate needs and guiding them toward a safer future. IDVAs are versed in coordinating health, housing and legal support for victims and their families, typically working closely with clients for at least two months.

She chatted with SafeLives pioneer Shana Begum and her 3-week-old baby, Jeremy, and also spoke with the hospital's larger domestic abuse team and related department leads, including those in sexual health and the emergency room.

Camilla has long made supporting victims of rape, domestic violence and sexual abuse a key priority of her public work. In May, Queen Camilla visited a powerful and moving exhibition in Manchester that illuminates the issue of domestic abuse.

The "I Am" exhibition features 12 large portraits of survivors of domestic abuse that were taken by photographer Allie Crewe and displayed outside Manchester Central Library. The images will also be shown at 150 local transport locations around the city.

During the outing, Camilla met with survivors of abuse, including some of those who were featured in the exhibit, and representatives of the local SafeLives, of which she has been patron since 2020. SafeLives is dedicated to ending domestic abuse.

In a moving speech at the event, Camilla said: "The stories we have heard today are heartbreaking, but they are not, by any means, unique. Domestic abuse can, and does, affect anyone."

"The photographs are both incredibly moving and inspiring. Moving — because of the depth of pain and loss that the survivors have endured at the hands of those who claimed to love them, and inspiring — because these photographs show us how survivors can, and do, take back their own identity and their own stories, which have too often been eroded and taken from them by the abuse they have suffered," she continued.

"Part of the power of these photographs lies in the fact that the images are not of victims, as we might have supposed: but, in the words of one of them, 'strong, feisty, brave survivor, changing the journey from victim to victor…making it smoother, shorter and never lonely.'

She concluded, "In the same way, these photographs make us reframe the questions that we ask of those living with domestic abuse: rather than 'why didn't they leave,' we should ask, 'why didn't the perpetrator stop?' As one survivor wrote, 'He tried to kill me. He nearly killed me. That's his failure. My survival, my thriving again, is my success.' "

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.