The story behind King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s unusual pet names for each other

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By Webdesk


BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - APRIL 09: Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall attend the reopening of Hillsborough Castle on April 09, 2019 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  (Photo by Chris Jackson-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Netflix’s “The Crown” is known as a dramatization of the private life of the British royal family. While the period drama isn’t 100 percent factual in its events, it largely depicts notable real-life references — including a small detail about King Charles III’s relationship with his wife, Queen Consort Camilla.

The fourth season of the Netflix series, which premiered in 2020, covers the famous love triangle between Charles, Camilla and Princess Diana, who died on August 31, 1997. While some viewers may have seen the season in its broad outline, others may not know a little bit of trivia the show reveals: Charles and Camilla’s nicknames for each other, which were apparently “Fred and Gladys.” As for secret nicknames, they are quite unusual, but there is a simple story behind them.

A 2005 Slate article written prior to Charles and Camilla’s wedding briefly explains the strange pet names: “Fred” and “Gladys” are the names of two characters from “The Goon Show,” a surreal radio comedy show from the 1950s that Charles reportedly loved. “Fred” was a character who “disappeared under his mother’s nose” – perhaps a sly reference to Charles’s complicated relationship with his own mother? ‘Gladys’, meanwhile, was known for the catchphrase ‘Yes, baby!’

Like in “The Crown,” Diana learned about Charles and Camilla’s codenames for each other at some point, though it’s not entirely clear how she put it together. A rumor, also shared by Slate, has it that Diana found a bracelet that Charles had bought for Camilla, inscribed with “GF” in clear reference to their secret names for each other, or to the nickname “Girl Friday”.

Interestingly, while using their nicknames is something of an accepted piece of popular trivia, insiders have disputed the claims over the years. Charles’s biographer, Howard Hodgson, wrote in his 2007 book “Charles: The Man Who Will Be King” that the “Fred and Gladys” fiasco was simply a product of Diana having an overactive and jealous imagination. After seeing a bouquet of flowers supposedly sent from Charles to Camilla, Hodgson says: “Diana claimed that with [the bouquet] there was one post that used what she says were the couple’s former pet names for each other – “To Gladys from Fred”… [but] no one can be found to verify these pet names.” Honestly, pet names are usually not something others outside of the couple involved can confirm.

At that point – around 1981 – there was some debate over whether Charles and Camilla were still involved, or whether they had agreed to end their relationship so that Charles could really do his best to make his marriage to Diana to succeed. However, by the mid-1980s, it was pretty much an open secret that Charles and Camilla were still together or were back together, when Charles and Diana’s marriage imploded.





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