Queen Camilla fended off attacker with a shoe as a teenager, book reveals

The Queen told Boris Johnson she was attacked by a man on a train as a teenager and that she hit him with a shoe, according to a new book about the monarchy.

During his time as mayor of London, Camilla disclosed to Mr Johnson that she had used the shoe to hit a man who tried to touch her on a train, the book titled Power And The Palace claimed.

According to an extract, the author, former Times royal correspondent Valentine Low, spoke to Mr Johnson’s former communications director, Guto Harri, who recalled Mr Johnson telling him about the meeting that took place at Clarence House around 2008.

In the extract, published in the Sunday Times, Mr Harri said of the pair: “They obviously got on like a house on fire.

“He (Mr Johnson) was making guttural noises about how much he admired and liked her.”

Mr Harri went on to speak about a conversation between Camilla and Mr Johnson, about an assault that she said occurred when she was a schoolgirl.

“She was on a train going to Paddington — she was about 16, 17 — and some guy was moving his hand further and further…”

Mr Harri said that after Mr Johnson asked what she did next, Camilla had replied: “I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.

“She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me’, and he was arrested.”

The Queen has long campaigned against domestic violence and sexual abuse and has dedicated her royal charity work to supporting victims of sexual assault.

In an STV documentary last year, she vowed to “keep trying” to end domestic violence, until she is “able to no more”, and was followed over the course of a year for the programme looking at her work in the field.