The Duchess of Cambridge was commissioned by none other than Camilla herself to snap the relaxed portrait for a special edition of Country Life magazine, which the royal guest edited in honor of her upcoming 75th birthday. Kate regularly photographs her husband, Prince William, and the couple’s three children for their own, official birthday portraits.
For the cover photo, the Duchess of Cornwall wears a floral dress with a matching blue cardigan while posing in her gardens at her Wiltshire home, called Ray Mill House.
“We are thrilled to have our Guest Editor captured so magnificently by royal photographer The Duchess of Cambridge,” Mark Hedges, editor-in-chief of Country Life, said in a statement shared with HuffPost on Tuesday.
HRH THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE
“We understand this is the first time a formal portrait of The Duchess of Cornwall has been taken by The Duchess of Cambridge for a magazine and we are honoured to have been chosen to be the first to publish this beautiful photograph,” he said of the “superb” photographs.
Hedges added, “We would be delighted to offer The Duchess of Cambridge another commission!”
The issue, which officially comes out on July 13th, also marks the magazine’s 125th anniversary.
On Prince Charles and Camilla’s Instagram account, Clarence House, they shared a behind-the-scenes photo of Kate photographing the Duchess of Cornwall (scroll through to the third photo to find it).
Hedges spoke about how the shoot came to be in a candid interview with The Telegraph, also published on Tuesday. The Country Living EIC said that he asked Camilla about cover ideas, and she said “Oh I’d quite like Catherine to do it.”
“I spent the next three or four minutes desperately racking my brains trying to think of a professional photographer called Catherine,” Hedges said. “Then I suddenly grasped what she meant ― one of the most amazing things that could happen. I found it one of the easier things to nod my head at.”
The editor-in-chief said that the two “didn’t bother too much with hair and make-up, they just got some flowers for the garden and got on with it.”