Celebrity
Queen Camilla hosts reception with Victoria Beckham, Penny Lancaster and Julia Gillard among guests
Queen Camilla hosted a number of prominent women at a Buckingham Palace reception, including former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Victoria Beckham and Rod Stewart’s wife, Penny Lancaster, were also on the star-studded guest list in London on Tuesday, as Her Majesty marked the 15th anniversary of Women of the World (WOW).
Gillard was among the first to greet the royal after the 77-year-old entered the room and made her way down the line up high profile guests.
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Queen Camilla appeared to reminisce about her first meeting for the former Labor leader and also the last time they saw each other.
“Yes, that’s right, that’s exactly the last time,” Gillard told Her Majesty.
“I spend a lot of time in London now and it’s lovely to be with Jude [Kelly CBE, founder of WOW] and it’s lovely to see you,” the former PM added.
Queen Camilla, who supported the collective since its 2010 launch before becoming president in 2015, hosts an annual WOW reception to coincide with International Women’s Day.
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This year’s affair was particularly star-studded, with Black Doves actress Sarah Lancashire, Gavin & Stacey creator and star Ruth Jones and professional footballer Jill Scott also among attendees.
Victoria Beckham, fresh from Paris Fashion Week, looked stunning in a gunmetal silk sleeveless dress and showed her perfect curtsy as she shook hands with the royal.
But it was Lancaster, who Her Majesty greeted with a kiss on the cheek, who got a shout out in Queen Camilla’s speech.
“Without fail, wherever WOW gathers, I have met the most extraordinary and impressive women who have, quite simply, refused to take ‘no’ for an answer,” she told the crowd of “ladies, more ladies and several gentlemen”.
“Some of them have a significant public profile. Others can’t be named because the work that they do would put their lives, or the lives of those whom they support, in danger.
“All of them have faced obstacles that could easily have intimidated them into a silent resignation to the status quo.
“Women such as Yalda Hakim, who has done so much to raise awareness of the plight of women in Afghanistan through her fearless journalism; Paris Thompson, who has advocated so effectively for the deaf community; Penny Lancaster, who volunteers as a special constable; and Laura Bates, campaigner, writer and founder of Everyday Sexism and many, many others.”
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Her Majesty revealed an interesting tidbit about her herself in the speech: she keeps her old notebooks and refers back to them as needed.
“A few months before the first festival, in 2010, I hosted my first WOW meeting, for the six members of the steering committee, at Clarence House,” she recalled.
“Looking back at my notes from that day, I see that the attendees described their plans for ‘a pioneering and groundbreaking platform that will present the very best of recognised and emerging talent from women around the world in the fields of cultural, environmental, education, political and economic leadership’.
“In a simplified form, I should have noted, ‘a pioneering and groundbreaking platform for women who refuse to take no for an answer’. Five years later, I was delighted to become president of WOW.”
Since then, WOW has become a global movement, with the festival promoting gender equality and celebrating women, girls and non-binary people.
It has expanded to work with 33 partners across the globe, reaching over 5 million people in 71 different locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA.
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