When Johnson and Harri later chose to cycle back to Clarence House to avoid another delay, Camilla welcomed them with amused disbelief as they stowed their bicycles in the shed. It was then that she took Boris upstairs for a private conversation — one in which she shared a story she had rarely spoken aloud.

A Teenage Ordeal Shared in Confidence

Camilla confided that, as a teenager of around 16 or 17, she had been traveling by train to Paddington when she became the target of a sexual assault attempt. “Some guy was moving his hand further and further …” she reportedly told Johnson.

When he asked how she reacted, her answer was unflinching. “I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel,” she said.

Harri recalled that even in recounting the painful experience, Camilla’s calm strength came through. At the time of the incident, she was composed enough to leap off the train at Paddington, find a man in uniform, and declare: “That man just attacked me.” The assailant was subsequently arrested.