When the public learned of Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, she became the most hated person in Britain. She used to be terrified to go out in public.
However, as time went on, the British people grew to appreciate Camilla, and she is now an integral part of the family. Most importantly, she is popular among many people.
Charles and Camilla met at a polo match through a common friend, Lucia Santa Cruz, the Chilean ambassador’s daughter. They began dating in 1972, but the relationship did not last long since Charles left to join the Royal Navy. When his duties there ended and he returned home, Camilla had already engaged to her now ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles.
Nonetheless, they remained close. Even after Charles married Diana, he and Camilla maintained contact.
According to royal biographer Penny Junior, Charles knew he wasn’t in love with his future wife Diana, but it was too late to cancel the wedding.
“Charles was not convinced he was doing the right thing in marrying Diana but there was no way out and, bolstered by the hope that things would be different once they were married, he put a brave face on it,” she wrote, as reported by the Mirror.
Most importantly, Camilla and Diana knew one other and got along well until things changed.
“I met [Camilla] very early on. I was introduced to the circle, but I was a threat, I was a very young girl, but I was a threat,” Diana explained in the book Diana: In Her Own Words.
According to Prince Charles’ authorized biography, which was quoted by Town & Country, the couple’s love affair began in 1986. At the time, Charles was still married to Princess Diana, who later discovered that her husband was cheating on her.
Diana faced Camilla once, but nothing happened.
Diana told Martin Bashir during a televised interview, “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
Charles and Diana separated in 1992, and their divorce was formalized four years later.
Just months after Charles and Diana’s legal separation, the press released a full transcript of a phone chat between the future King and Camilla.
The phone call revealed an intimate and s3xual exchange between the couple, later known as Tampongate.
Despite the press’s persecution of Camilla and Charles, their friendship remained strong. On April 9, 2005, the pair exchanged vows at a Windsor Guildhall civil ceremony.
Later, at the wedding reception, the late Queen Elizabeth made a toast to the newlyweds. She had other ideas, though, and momentarily entered another room to watch a horse race.
“I have two important announcements to make. The first is that Hedgehunter has won the Grand National,” the queen said.
“They have overcome Becher’s Brook and The Chair and all kinds of other terrible obstacles. They have come through, and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves,” Queen Elizabeth II continued as she made a comparison with her horses.
Camilla worked as a normal employee while married to her first husband. According to the Mirror, she worked as a secretary at many West End offices before becoming a receptionist at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in Mayfair. She attended Dubrells School in Sussex and Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington before concluding her education at the Institut Britannique in Paris, where she studied English and French literature.
In her book On The Fringe—A Life In Decorating, designer Imogen Taylor, a colleague at the interior design firm Colefax & Fowler where the queen used to work, recalls an occasion when a young Camilla arrived late to work after a night of partying.
Taylor said that Camilla was then shouted at and fired.
In 2016, she told the Sunday Times: “There were lots of debutantes working for us, even Camilla. She worked for us for a moment but got the sack.”
“He would shout and bellow so the whole building heard every word. The Duchess of Cornwall was one assistant who fell victim to one of tantrums. I think she came in late, having been to a dance,” Taylor recalled their boss’s temperament.
Camilla is now an integral part of the firm.
Speaking of Queen Camilla’s current role, royal analyst Angela Levin stated that Camilla is “holding the royal family up.”
“I mean, waiting until you’re 73 is a long time before you can claim the crown. I think it’s obviously challenging at his age, but he’s really determined, and he’s only recently begun to be king,” Levin remarked during an appearance on GB News. “Supporting him very much, absolutely by his side, is Queen Camilla, who is going to all the engagements that they would have gone to together on her own.”
“And so that way he will feel it’s still moving, it’s still running, and they can discuss it and talk about it. And I think that’s marvelous. I mean, she is holding the Royal Family up and being strong. If you imagine 30 years ago, people were saying the whole Royal Family would absolutely disintegrate, and she would be of no use.”
Although Camilla is known to avoid the spotlight, she is doing an amazing job when dealing with the people.
“To assist her spouse. She understands him well because they have been together for almost 50 years, before they married. “It’s been a long time, and they make each other laugh,” Levin said.
Charles Rae, a royal specialist and former royal writer, lauded the queen for her support of King Charles and Kate Middleton during this difficult time, calling her a “remarkable asset,” adding that Camilla is “one of the best things to happen to the Royal Family” in a “good number of years.”
“There’s no mistake about it: she stepped into the breach. With everything going on, she’s taken on even more job,” royal expert Charles Rae said.
“Everywhere she goes, she has got a cheery smile on and a happy face. She says the right things. She has proved to be a remarkable asset to the Royal Family, given the allegations that at one time she had bread rolls thrown at her in a supermarket car park.”
Rae concluded, “I remember her when she was the most hated woman in Britain. I’ve met her several times and she’s charming, she’s witty, she’s really nice to chat to, and certainly when she’s chatting to people, she has done her homework as to who she’s chatting to.”
Rebecca English, the Daily Mail’s royal correspondent, told Town & Country Magazine that there was a “very different situation” when Camilla joined the royal family and now.
“They chose not to’sell her’. They decided that the best way to move things ahead was to simply let her be herself and let others see for themselves what she is truly like.”
We believe Camilla is doing an excellent job for the royal family during these difficult times, as both King Charles and Kate Middleton are suffering cancer.
