Camilla parker bowles: duchess used to demand this

Camilla Parker Bowles may now be a senior member of the royal family but she has shared the same vice as many people in the UK during her lifetime, it has been said. The Duchess of Cornwall

used to be a heavy smoker - despite Prince Charles’ abhorrence of the habit. A royal expert has claimed the demands Camilla used to make in her smoking days before she kicked the addiction.

Writer Brian Hoey wrote in his book Not In Front Of The Corgis that the Duchess gave footmen precise instructions when it came to the homes she shares with Charles. “Footmen are instructed

to place silver cigarette boxes containing her favourite brand [of cigarette] in every room,” Hoey said. The staff also had to “make sure that matchbox holders in solid silver containers are

placed upright near at hand with one match half withdrawn so she does not have to scrabble about looking for a light". The footmen weren’t just there to get the smoking paraphernalia

prepared for her - they also tidied up after her. “The moment she leaves the room - even if just for a few minutes - a footman makes sure the ashtrays are emptied, ready for her return.”

Hoey added that Camilla’s cigarette bill came to over £100 a week - and it was the one extravagance of hers that Charles disliked. However, the Duchess of Cornwall was never allowed to smoke

in Buckingham Palace as there is a strict no-smoking policy at the royal residence. Charles - who is strongly against smoking - spent years persuading his wife to quit cigarettes. The

Duchess used to smoke 10 a day and Charles referred to it as “that filthy habit". He reportedly used to turf Camilla out on to the terrace at Highgrove in all weathers when she wanted

to smoke. One regular visitor says that if Charles “gets the slightest whiff of someone’s fag, he starts theatrically waving his arms around”. Eventually, after 30 years of smoking, Camilla

gave up with the help of her alternative health guru Mosaraf Ali. The Kolkata-born doctor encouraged her to take up yoga and took her on two retreats to the Himalayas to “re-energise” her

spirit. “It wasn't so much me giving up smoking, rather smoking giving up on me,” she told one friend, reported the Daily Mail, after she quit the habit following a “persistent cough.”

Camilla is not the only member of the royal family who is thought to have smoked. Prince Harry, 34, smoked up until this year. According to New York Daily News, Meghan Markle, 37, persuaded

her husband to abandon smoking and cut down on alcohol in preparation for trying for a baby. Camilla may have quit smoking but both she and Charles do enjoy a drink. Telegraph reporter

Gordon Rayner, who has attended 20 royal tours, claimed Charles’s favourite drink is a gin and tonic while Camilla favours red wine.