Courting Camilla A QUEEN LIKE NO OTHER
The one-time party girl never believed she was royal wife material – but her Prince Charming won her over
According to rumour, when Camilla Shand first met Prince Charles in 1971, she joked, “My great-grandmother was the mistress of your greatgreat grandfather – so how about it?”
Regardless of whether that actually happened, who could ever have predicted all those years ago the bubbly army officer’s daughter would one day go one better than her ancestor Alice Keppel (who had a long-standing affair with Edward VII) and be crowned Queen?
It was unthinkable to many people back in the 1990s, when it was revealed that Charles and Camilla had had an affair when he was married to Princess Diana. For many years, the then Mrs Parker Bowles was the most reviled woman in the UK. Yet in one of the most remarkable turnarounds in public opinion in history, Camilla is now accepted as a fitting partner to support the King throughout his reign.
Even Camilla herself doubted she would ever be Queen. During the brief but passionate romance she and Charles enjoyed back in the early ’70s – which started when she was 24 and he was 22 – she was under no illusion that it would last because she knew she was not royal wife material.
Although she came from a well-to-do family and her grandfather was a baron, she was not the aristocrat the future king was expected to marry. Nor was she the chaste virgin deemed to be appropriate for a prince.
Says royal expert Tina Brown, author of The Palace Papers, “With neither a grand title or a record of chastity, the chances of the Prince of Wales proposing to Camilla were slim.”
What she didn’t know – because he hadn’t told her – was that Charles had in fact realised she was the woman for him. But when his work as a naval officer meant he had to go to sea for eight months, he departed without signalling his intentions. And while he was gone, Camilla married the man she’d had an on-off relationship with since her teens, Andrew Parker Bowles.
Charles and Camilla stayed friends and would later reignite their romance – reports vary on exactly when that was, but they did have an affair when they were both still married to others – but even once they were divorced, the chances of formalising their relationship seemed to be out of the question.
Apart from being hated by a nation, even her friends could not imagine mother-oftwo Camilla as a member of the royal family.
A countrywoman at heart, she was most comfortable in jeans and gumboots, riding, looking after her horses or losing herself in a good book. She’d never had a proper job and didn’t like travel because she was afraid of flying.
“She has no desire to be famous or popular,” said Mark Bolland, Charles’ former deputy private secretary. But thanks to Mark and his PR talents, a drive to get Camilla accepted by the public was a success.
By 2004, more Brits were in favour of Charles marrying Camilla than opposed it and
they said “I do” the following April. Her popularity has further increased since the wedding, largely because she has worked tirelessly to carry out her royal duties and to champion causes like improving literacy, raising awareness of osteoporosis and stopping sexual violence against women.
Those who’ve met her describe her as warm, downto-earth and genuine. “She’s a very authentic and kind person, with a knack for putting people at their ease,” says Angela Levin, author of Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort.
But another book describes her in less favourable terms. In his memoir Spare, and the interviews he did to promote it, her stepson Prince Harry has not been kind.
“She was the villain, she was a third person in the marriage, she needed to rehabilitate her image,” he told Anderson Cooper on
60 Minutes. “That made her dangerous because of the connections she was forging with the British press.”
Harry wrote that he and his brother Prince William pleaded with their father not to marry Camilla, and afterwards “she began to play the long game. A campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the crown, with Pa’s blessing, we presumed”.
Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles has since disputed that Camilla had underlying motives when it came to Charles. “I think change happens, but I don’t care what anyone says – this wasn’t any sort of end game,” the food writer said in an interview. “She married the person she loved and this is what happened.”
Marrying the love of her life has brought with it an extraordinary role that comes with great privilege but also huge responsibility. It is a commitment she is prepared to shoulder because she loves Charles.
“Her story is incredible and she’s a pretty amazing woman,” says Angela. “I think the royal family and the public are lucky to have her.”
‘Her story is incredible and she’s a pretty amazing woman’