Camilla’s dogs become ‘Girls in Pearls’ for Country Life feature

In her capacity as guest editor, the Duchess meets a support group for rural victims of domestic abuse.

She tells them: “It is incredibly moving; they are so brave, these women, because to actually get up and talk about it … when some of them sat on it for years and years … they’ve felt shame, they’ve felt guilty and to suddenly literally get up and start talking about it like they did is a very brave thing to do.”

She goes on to tell one abused man: “I am very glad you’re here because I sometimes think men get a bit overlooked. I’ve met a lot of men who are survivors. I think people think: oh, it’s all women, it doesn’t happen to men, but it jolly well does.”

The Duchess, who also met anti-knife crime campaigners, adds: “I want to point out in the countryside it’s not all roses. Darker things happen in rural areas where they don’t get as much attention as they do in these big cities. I’m trying to help out by putting it into print.”

In what she admits is “a bit of nepotism”, Camilla also chooses her husband, the Prince of Wales, as a champion of the countryside for his work highlighting the plight of farmers and the environment.

Prince Charles himself guest edited Country Life, first for his 65th birthday in November 2013, and then for his 70th in 2018, when it became the biggest-selling issue of all time.

She confesses, however, that she had not enjoyed the task of putting down her thoughts about her husband for an article in the magazine, in which she describes him as “a countryman to his very core”.

“It’s not easy writing about your husband,” she tells ITV. “I’ve been through several pencils.”