Queen Camilla was “pinned down” by a ghost when her young family lived in a “haunted house”, her son has claimed.
Tom Parker-Bowles is the oldest child of Camilla and her ex-husband, retired Army officer Andrew Parker-Bowles. The former couple raised Tom and his younger sister Laura at Bolehyde Manor, a 17th-century house in Allington, Wiltshire.
It is there Tom says children would “run past” haunted rooms, fearing the historic house was home to a spectre. The 49-year-old food writer however admits he never actually saw one of the ghosts.
During an episode of Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, Tom shared: “My mother says she woke up one night, in the middle of the night, and there was a presence sort of pinning her down in her bed. This was many, many years ago, but she’s made of pretty strong stuff so probably told the ghost where to go.”
He reminisces about certain areas in their old home being so spooked that even the family pet wouldn’t dare step foot within them. The atmosphere in the house often felt chillingly “cold”, irrespective of it being summer.
Tom added: “There were lots of people who were very rational people, who in the middle of the night would jump in their car and drive back to London because something had got in their bed, and it was a spirit.
“We would hear stories of banquets going on downstairs that people would hear, but there was nothing there, there were rooms the dogs wouldn’t go into, it was quite a big old manor house, and rooms that we ran past.
“As a child you would build up a fear of these rooms. It was always cold, even in the middle of summer.
“It was an old house, it was a Tudor manor, there’s folklore and tales and there’s you know lots of mad monks and grey ladies. We never actually saw a ghost but we felt them.”
The manor house is believed to have derived its name from Thomas de Bolehyde, a 14th-century landowner who allegedly swindled funds from monks. Royal biographer Penny Junor previously shared with Page Six that Camilla “would become aware of its presence when she was watching television and the ghost would sit beside her and change the channels”.
She further added: “She never saw it, but she could feel it next to her and she would laugh about how she and the ghost always wanted to watch different programs.”
Bolehyde, a Grade-II listed manor house, features four reception rooms, eight bedrooms, a swimming pool, a moat, and 80 acres of land. Camilla and her former husband sold the property to relocate to Middlewick House in nearby Corsham.
After her divorce in 1994, Camilla purchased Ray Mill House, also located in Wiltshire, for £850,000. The residence includes a swimming pool, a river and its very own stables.
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletterhere.