The King’s Foundation has continued to employ Queen Camilla’s younger sister, Annabel Elliot, as a consultant despite her removal from the Duchy of Cornwall payroll last year, according to reports. The foundation, established in 1990 by King Charles III, reportedly compensates Elliot for her work providing design expertise and support in branding and retail consultancy.
Elliot, an interior designer and antiques dealer, has had a longstanding professional relationship with the royal family dating back to 2005, shortly after the King and Queen’s marriage. Over the years, she has been involved in renovating royal residences in Cornwall, Wales, and Sicily. Until 2024, Elliot had been on the payroll of the Duchy of Cornwall, a historic estate associated with the heir to the throne, which documented payments to her in its publicly available accounts under “related party transactions.”
However, in 2024, during his first year overseeing the Duchy, Prince William removed Elliot from the estate’s finances. Since then, the King’s Foundation has reportedly taken over the contractual arrangement, though the charity has not included details of her consultancy in the equivalent “related party transactions” disclosures required in its annual reports. The foundation has yet to clarify the absence of this information.
In a statement, the King’s Foundation confirmed that Elliot provides design expertise to its retail and brand teams, describing her as a “long-standing and valued consultant” whose experience supports a range of projects. The statement emphasized that the arrangement is not secret, though it declined to comment on specific consultancy agreement details.
The King’s Foundation was founded on the principle of promoting harmony with nature and serves as one of King Charles III’s principal charitable vehicles. The foundation’s engagement of Elliot underscores an ongoing connection between the royal household and the interior designer despite recent changes to formal payroll structures within associated royal estates.