Queen Gladys: The meaning behind Prince Charles’ nickname for Camilla

It’s official: When Charles is finally crowned King, Camilla Parker-Bowles will be known, henceforth, as Queen Camilla.

The endorsement from the Queen came as Her Majesty celebrated 70 years on the throne on 6 February.

Her Majesty said in an address to the public as she entered her Platinum Jubilee year: “I remain eternally grateful for, and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that you continue to give me. And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me.

“It is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”

When Charles and Camilla married on 9 April, 2005, it was announced that she would be known as Princess Consort when Charles became King. But now that the Queen has ruled otherwise, will we have a Queen Gladys on our hands?

Gladys, of course, is the nickname reportedly given to Camilla by Charles decades ago, even pre-dating Charles’ relationship with Princess Diana.

The nicknames featured heavily on season four of The Crown, the Netflix series which takes a fictional look at the life of Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family.

In the show, Diana is shown to have found a gold bracelet engraved with the letters “G” and “F”, which stood for “Gladys” and “Fred”, Charles and Camilla’s nicknames for one another.

In reality, Diana spoke of this incident to royal biographer Andrew Morton. She said: “I walked into this man’s office one day and I said, ‘Ooh, what’s in that parcel?’ And he said ‘Oh, you shouldn’t look at that.

“So I opened it and there was a gold chain bracelet with a blue enamel disc. It’s got ‘G and F’ entwined in it, ‘Gladys’ and ‘Fred’—they were their nicknames.”

It’s said Prince Charles was inspired by one of his favourite shows, The Goon Show, a British radio comedy show that ran from 1951 to 1960.

Fred and Gladys were two characters in the radio show and appeared regularly. But no details have been given on why these names were chosen.

Other reported nicknames the pair have for each other are “darling” and “mehbooba”.

Just days after Camilla was given the Queen Consort endorsement, Charles used her pet name, “mehbooba” during a speech. Mehbooba means “my beloved” in Urdu.

At an event at the at the British Museum in London, Charles said: “I cannot quite believe it is almost two years to the day that both my mehbooba and myself were able to be with all of you to celebrate the work of the British Asian Trust.

“Since then, across the globe, there has been terrible loss of life from this dreadful pandemic and we have especially seen the devastating impact throughout south Asia.”

During an engagement in early February, Camilla was also heard calling Charles “darling” which one onlooker described as “lovely”.

The Queen is famously known as Lilibet, a moniker which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have now given their daughter.

Meghan Markle calls Prince Harry “H”. In the 2019 ITV documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey, Markle said: "In all honesty, I have said for a long time to H - that is what I call him - it's not enough to just survive something, that's not the point of life, you have got to thrive.”

Prince Andrew’s eldest daughter, Beatrice, is known as “Bea”. Her sister, Princess Eugenie, often refers to her by this name, once captioning a birthday Insatgram post: “Happy Birthday to you Beabea!”