Queen vows to keep on fighting to end domestic abuse until she is ‘able to do no more’

The Queen has vowed to keep on fighting to end the scourge of domestic abuse until she is “able to no more”.

In a powerful new ITV documentary, Camilla, 77, speaks extensively about what inspired her long-running campaign to end such violence and the courage of the survivors that propels her on.

She is filmed meeting many victims, including one woman who nervously shares her story for the first time shortly after arriving at a refuge. The Queen admits that until she met somebody who had been raped by a partner, it had “never occurred” to her that a woman could be raped at home.

She acknowledges that the very concept of someone in her position taking part in such a documentary in the 1950s would have been inconceivable because domestic abuse was a taboo subject and “people just blocked their ears”.

But despite the huge strides made since then, she insists that there is much more that needs to be done. One in four women and one in six men in England and Wales currently experience some form of domestic abuse, with an estimated three women a week taking their own lives as a result.

“Don’t let’s kid ourselves, it’s going to take a long long time because it’s been going forever,” the Queen says of her desire to end such “heinous” crimes.

“It’s been going, well, since time began. But I think if you look at the steps that we’ve taken since the bad old days, we have made a huge amount of progress, and I shall keep on trying till I’m able to no more.”

Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors charts her ongoing work in the field after she allowed a camera crew to film her engagements, both public and private, over the course of a year.

The one-hour documentary features compelling testimony from several victims of domestic abuse, including MP Rosie Duffield and Sharon Baker, chief inspector of Avon and Somerset Police, as well as high-profile campaigners such as Cherie Blair, Theresa May, Jess Phillips and Sir Patrick Stewart.

‘Invisible chains’

One woman describes how her partner threw petrol over her clothes when she returned home from a night out because they were too revealing.

Another tells how her partner lifted her off the floor by her throat when she was seven months pregnant, only letting her go when her lips turned blue.

They speak about the “invisible chains” that kept them from leaving, from their young children to fears about losing their lives. One woman reveals that a week after her abusive partner was arrested and cautioned and told not to contact her, he took his own life, leaving a suicide note blaming her.

“He would say, ‘there’s only one way out for you and that’s in a wooden box’,” another woman says.

At the refuge, a woman called Natalie sits down for a cup of tea with the Queen and tells her how the abuse began with “the odd slap”, which evolved to beatings that sometimes lasted for days, locking her in the house so she could not escape.

On one occasion, a friend heard the commotion on the other end of the phone and called the police. Natalie was too scared to make a statement but an officer contacted a support worker who suggested she go to the refuge.

“It’s probably saved your life,” the Queen tells her. “It did, definitely,” Natalie replies.

“It’s so important that you’re telling the world what happened to you, because if you’ve got through it, others could get through it too,” the Queen adds, imploring Natalie to let her know how she gets on in the future.

The Queen praises some of the other women for bravely speaking out, telling them that their stories and experiences are “vital tools” in the effort to bring about change.

She tells one group of survivors who share their stories on camera that she was moved to tears after hearing them describe their shame and their guilt, warmly telling them: “That’s what everybody feels, that it must be your fault. But now you realise it isn’t.”

‘Scratching the surface’

Mrs Phillips, who worked for Women’s Aid before becoming a Labour MP, said the Queen was “pushing the door wider and wider open”, noting that it would have been “unimaginable” 20 years ago for someone in her position to be publicly talking about rape and sexual violence.

The Queen was inspired to use her platform after meeting Diana Parkes, 85, the mother of Joanna Simpson, who was bludgeoned to death in 2010 by Robert Brown, her British Airways pilot husband, and who now campaigns for an end to domestic abuse.

“I think she’s so strong because not many people would be able to survive the death of a daughter,” the Queen says. “I admire her more than I can say.”

On how she has gone on to make domestic violence one of the key planks of her work, she says: “By scratching the surface, you get a terrible shock.”

Yvonne Traynor, former CEO of Rape Crisis South London, describes how, in 2009, she wrote to around 100 high-profile celebrities looking for someone to champion their cause but received not one reply.

In the end, she decided to try the Queen, then Duchess of Cornwall, recognising that she appeared to be “a really strong woman”, but admits she “couldn’t have been more surprised to actually get a reply saying yes, she was interested.”

The documentary includes footage of Camilla welling up and visibly emotional as she listens to the harrowing stories of women who have survived domestic abuse, and others who had lost their lives at the hands of violent partners in 2016.

It was the first time the Queen had met Ms Parkes. Surprised to see someone of her own generation in the room, she describes how she had tried to put herself in her shoes, imagining it had been her own daughter. “My reaction, I’m afraid, was to cry,” she says, adding that the meeting was “engraved on my heart”.

“If there had been a spark, Diana ignited it,” she adds. “And off I went from there.”

Prompting conversation

Ms Simpson’s best friend, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, who was made a CBE last year for services to those affected by domestic abuse and homicide, revealed at a preview screening last week the Queen’s wish to destigmatise the discourse around domestic abuse.

Eight years ago, the Queen declared that she wanted to “do something to remove that shroud of shame and be a catalyst for change” and had since been “undeterred” by her increasingly senior profile, which she continues to use for good.

The Queen was motivated to take part in the documentary in the hope that it “prompts conversations in homes, schools, workplaces across the country”.

A palace spokesman said: “If they can happen here, in a palace with a Queen, they can and should happen everywhere. Because it is from these conversations that some of the many tens of thousands of women and men suffering in silence today may get to hear that they are not alone.”

Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors will be broadcast on ITV on Monday November 11