THE Duchess of Cornwall has revealed she received a royal-helping hand with her cover of Country Life magazine.
Camilla called on Kate Middleton for support as she wore the hat of guest editor to celebrate her 75th birthday and the magazine’s 125th anniversary.
The Duchess of Cornwall called on Kate to help with her Country Life cover
Camilla is the fourth royal to become guest editor of the esteemed magazine
She personally selected her fellow Duchess to shoot the legendary portraits at the Wiltshire home she shares with Prince Charles.
The future Queen Consort looked radiant as she posed in the gardens of Raymill in a blue flowery frock for the front cover.
The 74-year-old, who celebrates her birthday on Sunday, praised Kate’s photography skills while telling of her fun-filled day.
In the ITV documentary celebrating her guest editorship of Country Life, she gushed about the abilities of the amateur snapper.
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Camilla said: “She did really good pictures and you know she does it very naturally…we had a lot of fun doing it.
“It was very relaxed and of course very kind of the Duchess of Cambridge.
“She’s an extremely good photographer and it was all very casual, there wasn’t much hair and make-up – it was just done in the garden with a lot of laughs, it was a lovely way of doing it.”
The straightforward shoot even got Prince Charles’ seal of approval.
His wife of 16 years added: “This is the one I know that my husband approves of.
“Catherine said if anything else needed to be done she would be happy to.
“If I can get over the fact looking at myself, I think they are very nice and just what is needed for Country Life.”
Kate, 40, is a keen amateur photographer and regularly shares snaps she has taken of her children to celebrate their birthdays.
She is also patron of the Royal Photographic Society, after the Queen handed over the honour to her daughter-in-law in 2019.
Even Country Life’s esteemed editors were impressed by the Duchess’ camera abilities.
The magazine’s top dog Mark Hedges told viewers how they were initially stumped by Camilla’s specific request.
He explained: “When we first met back in January I said ‘obviously ma’am we need to do a front cover. Do you have any preference for photographers?’
“She immediately said Catherine and none of us could think who she meant. And then some light bulbs started going on.”
Managing and feature editor Paula Lester echoed his compliments, saying Kate was “incredibly professional” behind the lens.
She wrote in Country Life: “The Duchess of Cambridge took our cover images at the request of our Guest Editor, The Duchess of Cornwall, and we could not be happier with the results — in fact, the set of images she took was so good that we struggled to choose only three, from which The Duchess of Cornwall made her final selection.
“The Duchess of Cambridge took her commission very seriously and was incredibly professional about the task at hand.”
Camilla is the fourth royal guest editor to temporarily take over the magazine – and revealed she was keen to outsell her rivals.
She follows in the footsteps of Princess Anne and Prince Charles, who twice edited the magazine – to mark his 65th birthday in November 2013 and his 70th in 2018, the biggest selling issue of all time.
The future Queen joked she was eager to knock her hubby off the top spot with her highly-anticipated edition.
It delves into the Duchess of Cornwall’s love of the countryside, her rural heroes and heroines and a string of charities close to her heart.
She told how the hardest part of producing the mag was writing about Charles, saying: “I got through several pen and pencils before I got what I wanted!”
Prince Charles featured in the ITV doc to give his seal of approval on the pictures
Camilla specifically asked for Kate to shoot the cover – and had a lot of fun doing it
