Saturday will mark a month since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and a month since Charles became the King. When you see the words “The Queen”, other than Beyoncé, who comes to mind? It’s Elizabeth II, right? Well, some people are trying to change that. Read the thread below, there are several tweets: 

 

It is not specified who has “instructed” The Times to refer to Camilla as “The Queen”, dropping the “Consort” from use but further down, this tweet suggests that it’s the newspaper making the call and not necessarily the Crown: 

Do you think the Crown minds though? Even if they’re fronting here like it was the Times’s decision to call Camilla the Queen and not Queen Consort, it’s not like Charles will be out here complaining about it. So let’s not pretend there’s not some back-scratching going on behind the scenes. It would be unseemly for the palace to suggest the title transition but, you know, if the paper of record does it on the basis of journalistic style, it wouldn’t be proper for the royal family to interfere with the press, right? Like, no, no, no, we’re not the ones deciding on it – we would never, ever, ever impose on the press this way! You want to call Camilla the Queen and not Queen Consort?! Oh, OK, sure, if that’s what you really want! 

 

And as IFFFFF the Times wouldn’t have consulted the royal family about it ahead of time anyway. They’ll deny it but you know. You KNOW. So please, from where I’m sitting it couldn’t look more obvious. But whatever, this is what we’re working with – England’s paper of record will from now on refer to Camilla as The Queen, which will make the flag shaggers happy (I LOVE this expression) but … I mean… will it stick? 

The Times is the paper of record, and in the past, the paper of record usually set the standard for style – and this is likely what the royal family and the Times both are hoping for. But things don’t necessarily work that way in the present. Papers of record don’t have the stylistic influence that they used to have, not with the internet and social media driving the tone on language and culture. There’s another royal example for this: Catherine of House Cambridge, the princess formerly known as Kate Middleton. She is almost always referred to as Kate, even though she’s called Catherine on all official royal correspondence. People know her as Kate – and that’s not going to change any time soon, if ever. 

 

But that also reminds me of when Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married and they tried to get people to stop calling her Katie and refer to her as Kate instead. The collective general reaction to that was I don’t know her. 

So, to go back to Camilla… 

Are we doing this? Are we going with Camilla The Queen, Queen Camilla, no Consort? 

LaineyGossip is the opposite of a paper of record, LOL, but I might as well do this here and set our site standard: 

Ahem, as the editor of LaineyGossip, I Lainey Lui, hereby declare that Camilla will always be referred to as Camilla, Queen Consort, or Queen Consort Camilla, and perhaps on rare occasions, Camilla Queen Sidepiece or Sidechick if we are quoting Twitter because that’s her name in some corners of social media. All contributors to LaineyGossip will be immediately INSTRUCTED as such. 

 

Queen Elizabeth the II was the longest reigning monarch in English history. There will not be another female monarch on the English throne – if the throne survives – for at least three generations, because following Charles will be William and after William will be George and the only way there will be a Queen after George is if his firstborn is a daughter. If not, the Queen drought will continue. 

She hasn’t even been dead a month, and already they’re trying to pin that word on the Consort? Who’s disrespecting the Queen now?