As the most senior members of the Royal Family, it’s expected that the King and Queen would have access to all of the latest technology to ensure they can easily stay in contact with their nearest and dearest.
However, Queen Camilla struggles to keep up with her family’s digital chats, although entirely through her own choice, as she instead chooses to keep it simple ’90s Nokia “brick” phone.
The revelation was made by Camilla’s son, Tom Parker Bowles, 49, who recently told Woman & Home Magazine that his mum is not included in their family WhatsApp chat due to her outdated choice of mobile phone, HELLO! reports.
When asked if his family had a group chat on the messaging app, he replied: “We do—my children, my sister and cousins—but my mum still uses an old-fashioned Nokia telephone, so [she] can’t. I think it’s for security.”
During her 70-year reign, the late Queen Elizabeth II reportedly had a slightly more advanced phone than Camilla but was “defeated by apps,” according to Gyles Brandreth’s book, Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait.
He wrote: “She had her own mobile phone, and obliging grandchildren ready to show her how it worked. She understood ‘texting’, though was rather defeated by ‘apps’.”
He also added that the former monarch enforced strict rules surrounding mobile phones which were forbidden at the dinner table. He claims: “She did not allow her grandchildren to bring their ‘devices’ to the dining table, under any circumstances”.
Tom recently discussed life as part of the royal family in an interview with Hello! where he shared what a brilliant mother Camilla is to him and how protective he felt of her when she was thrust into public life.
He recalled: “Especially in the bad days, the mid-nineties—the aggression of the paparazzi, the screaming, the shouting, and she didn’t have a network to protect her. I remember high-speed chases down the M4 that were incredibly dangerous.”
Speaking of their life behind the scenes, he said: “I come from a very laid-back family. We all gather around the table. We all love food. We all love a drink.”
Tom is the son of retired army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, whom Camilla married in 1973 and divorced in 1995.
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