There was an "unspoken backroom deal" between Queen Elizabeth and then-Prince Charles over Camilla.

According to the author of a biography of King Charles, the late Queen Elizabeth did not like her daughter-in-law, Queen Camilla, but agreed to a "very subtle and implicit deal" to make her Queen Consort (later Queen), the Mirror reports.

Royal expert Christopher Andersen, author of "The King: The Life of Charles III," said that the late Queen had "always detested" Camilla and approved Camilla's title over none other than Prince Andreu He said that Camilla's title was approved because of "unspoken behind-the-scenes dealings" over Prince Andreou, who was not a member of the Queen's household. Camilla was disliked for "disrupting the work," Andersen said.

"The queen always hated Camilla," Andersen said on Newsweek's "Royal Report" podcast.

"The Queen Mother especially hated Camilla. Camilla brought the monarchy to the brink of ruin." (Andersen is, of course, referring to the long-standing affair between Prince Charles and then-Mrs. Camilla Parker-Bowles. The Queen was wary of Camilla when she first got to know her, but warmed to her in her later years

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According to Andersen, after Prince Charles' first wife, Princess Diana, died in a car accident in Paris in 1997, Buckingham Palace conducted an operation called "Operation PB" (short for Parker-Bowles) to restore Camilla's image. Andersen said that it "took eight years to convince everyone that Charles would finally accept Camilla as his wife," and that they had to "jump through all the hoops" to do so. (Prince Charles and Camilla were eventually married in 2005.)

On her last coronation day before her death (February 6, 2022), the late queen issued a platinum jubilee message in which she told the world that she hoped Camilla would become queen after her death. She said, "I know that when the fullness of time comes and my son Charles becomes King, you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given to me. And when that time comes, it is my sincere hope that Camilla will be known as the Queen Consort while continuing her own faithful service."

There is a reason for this unexpected show of support on such an important day: Andersen believes that the queen agreed to Camilla's title because of "a very subtle and unspoken deal behind the scenes that led to her sudden support of Camilla." That deal, he says, "involved a kind of quid pro quo" and was resisted "for years and years" until the late Queen finally made her decision just seven months before her death in September of that year.

When Prince Charles and his wife Camilla married, it was understood that upon Prince Charles' ascension to the throne, Camilla's title would be Princess Consort; the February 2022 announcement changed that, making it official that Camilla would be queen. By the time of Charles' coronation in May, eight months after the late queen's death, the "consort" was removed and she became known as Queen Camilla, crowned with her husband in a ceremony on May 6.