LONDON: Are Americans ready for a possible Queen Camilla? That’s the question Prince Charles and his new bride may be hoping to answer next week as they embark on an eight-day tour of the United States that will take them to New York, Washington and San Francisco.

The couple started testing the waters last week with some unusually solicitous attention to the media. Charles invited American journalists out to his Highgrove Farm in Gloucestershire, and taped an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes. Then, Camilla turned up on the front pages of several British newspapers in an eye-grabbing, diamond-studded royal tiara.

On Wednesday, there was more hobnobbing with American media at a send-off party that included US Ambassador Robert Tuttle and his wife Maria. He promised the prince a warm reception for Camilla in the United States.

But royal-watchers say it could be a big challenge, given how hugely popular Princess Diana remains in the United States even eight years after her death. Charles’s 35-year relationship with the woman then known as Camilla Parker Bowles contributed to the breakup of his marriage to Diana.

A successful US tour, proving that Camilla can handle the requisite royal duties abroad with her own down-to-earth grace would help ease doubts about whether she will be accepted by the British public as queen.

—Dawn/LAT-WP News Service