Royals

Camilla knackered, not bored, by games opening ceremony: Organisers

Apr 06, 2018

Lucy Turnbull, left, and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, tried their hand at table tennis at the Athlete's Village. Source: Getty

Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, copped some flack for appearing bored and flicking through a programme at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, but palace officials have defended the royal, while games organisers said she was merely knackered with jet lag.

Australian media commentators noted on Thursday that Camilla looked somewhat unenthusiastic on the number of occasions the cameras rested on her during the ceremony, with even iconic actor Paul Hogan joking on Twitter that it appeared the duchess was reading New Idea – known for its lurid headlines about the royals – rather than concentrating on the ceremony.

And not all Aussies blamed her, with plenty complaining that they too were underwhelmed by the line-up of entertainment put together to herald the opening of the games on the Gold Coast on Wednesday night.

But News Corp reported that Clarence House, the duchess and Prince Charles’ official residence in the UK, was sufficiently stung by the insinuation that Camilla wasn’t totally into the event to issue a statement saying that she “thoroughly enjoyed” it. “They found it entertaining and moving particularly the indigenous musical performances and the smoking ceremony,” Clarence House said of the prince and the duchess, according to News Corp’s report.

Meanwhile, the president of the games, Louise Martin, told AFP newswire that Camilla was “shattered” from flying, which she hates doing, but not “tired and disinterested”.

“I didn’t see the facial expressions, etc, but the comments between the duchess and Prince of Wales and myself … She was asking questions all the time. They both enjoyed it,” Martin said.

Camilla had spent the day of the ceremony in Brisbane at public engagements, after having taken a long-haul flight from the UK to Australia for the games, and immediately went from her Brisbane events to a reception prior to the opening ceremony, and then the opening ceremony itself. And to be fair to the royals, it can’t be easy sitting through that many public events, not all of which are likely to be particularly interesting.

There was, however, no sign of a lack of enthusiasm from the pair on Thursday, as they made multiple stops at games venues, meeting competitors, attending medal presentations and visiting community events such as the opening of a walkway and a demonstration by Nippers on the Gold Coast, before presenting medals at the pool and the velodrome on Thursday night. Camilla even tried her had at a bit of table tennis at the Athletes’ Village.

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While the royal couple are, according to Clarence House, enjoying the games, plenty of Aussies weren’t so happy about the opening ceremony, with influential talkback radio host Alan Jones leading the complaints. Speaking on his morning radio show on 2GB on Thursday, Alan Jones called the indigenous Australian “symbolism” of the ceremony “rubbish and an insult” to all Australians.

“This was an opportunity to celebrate Australia, to celebrate Queensland,” he said. “No one could understand let alone enjoy what all that indigenous symbolism was about … Thank god for the athletes’ parade, then the colour of the Africans, the gifted John Foreman, the 16-year-old flagbearer from Mozambique, Prince Charles looking bored rigid, at least he gave me a laugh.”

Plenty of Starts at 60 readers agreed with him, with one saying the ceremony was “very hard to understand [and] at best, boring”. But others called on their fellow Aussies to celebrate the good things about the games, rather than pointing out shortfalls. “I actually thought it was one of the best I’ve seen and really enjoyed it,” one reader said.