Ending years of ‘royal confusion’ over what Prince Charles’ wife Camilla’s title would be once he takes the throne, Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday said she wanted Camilla to ultimately be known as Queen Consort. In a major statement on the eve of the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne, the Queen reflected on the somewhat ‘changed’ opinion of Camilla years after her very public controversy over an extramarital affairs with Prince Charles and its affect on his then-wife the late Princess Diana.
The recent seasons of the Netflix show ‘the Crown’ had brought to the fore, with added spice, the Princess Diana-Charles-Camila controversy, with some online hate against Camilla also coming up. However, years of service has apparently worked in the favour of the Duchess of Cornwall. The queen’s message ties up a loose end that has hung over the House of Windsor since Charles’ divorce from the popular Princess Diana.
So what was the entire controversy about?
According to Charles’ authorised biography, the Prince began an affair with the married Camilla Parker Bowles in 1986, five years after his marriage to Princess Diana. However, the pair had met much earlier. According to a report by the Town and Country magazine, Charles and Camilla had at a polo match in Windsor Great Park, a royal park, for the first time in 1970. They discovered that they shared a love of polo and the outdoors, as well as a sense of humour.
“My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great-grandfather. I feel we have something in common,” she had joked about the fact that her great-grandmother had had an affair with King Edward VII.
They had start dating, but Charles had to leave for eight months to serve in the Royal Navy. Camilla was engaged to someone else when he returned.
Then, in 1973, Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, an Army cavalry officer seven years her senior who previously dated Prince Charles’s sister, Princess Anne, in July. She gave birth to Tom and Laura Parker Bowles. Charles and Camilla remained friends, and Prince Charles was appointed as Tom’s godfather.
Diana Spencer Comes Into the Picture
Charles, 31, began dating Lady Diana Spencer, 18 in 1980. On February 6 in 1981, Charles proposed to Diana. (According to one report, he proposed in Camilla’s garden.) When a television interviewer asks him and Diana if they’re in love after the news breaks on February 24, he made a slightly startling remark. “Of course,” Diana said, blushing. “Whatever love means,” Charles added. But, in a newspaper interview at the time, he sounds more smitten: “I feel positively delighted and frankly amazed that Di is willing to take me on.”
They married in St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29 in front of an estimated 750 million people around the world, with Camilla reportedly in attendance. They have two sons, Prince William, born in 1982, and Prince Harry, born in 1984, but their marriage is strained.
The Confrontation About the Affair
According to the report, Diana confronted Camilla in 1989, approaching her at a party and saying, “I know what’s going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that. She said to me: ‘You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world fall in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?’ So I said, ‘I want my husband.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way…and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot.”
The Book That Shocked the World
Andrew Morton’s book Diana: Her True Story is published in June; the Princess of Wales had recorded multiple tapes for the freelancer writer, and its publication shocked the world because of its explosive stories about Diana’s jealousy over Charles’s involvement with Camilla. Questions arose as to whether Charles could be king if he divorced and remarried—under the Church of England’s strictures at the time, he would not be allowed a second marriage, as the King is the secular head of the church. Prime Minister John Major announced in December that Charles and Diana have divorced.
Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles announced their divorce in January of 1995. Martin Bashir in the same year, conducted a televised interview with Diana in November, during which he asks if Camilla played a role in the breakdown of her marriage. “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a little crowded,” she says sadly.
Diana was tragically killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997, shortly after Charles hosted a 50th birthday party for Camilla at his country home, Highgrove.
In 1998, Charles resumed the process of legitimising his relationship gradually. He confirmed that Camilla met Prince William, as reported in a British tabloid, and the papers speculated that she will meet Prince Harry soon as well. The Queen, on the other hand, did not approve of the previously-adulterous relationship and declined to attend Charles’ private 50th birthday party because Camilla would be present.
It took years for many in Britain to forgive Charles, the man whose admitted infidelity brought such pain to “the people’s princess” before she died in a Paris car crash in 1997. But the public mood softened after Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 and she became the Duchess of Cornwall.
In 2000, the Queen finally recognised the relationship. The Queen’s official approval had remained a challenge for Charles and Camilla. Finally, she accepted an invitation to a Highgrove event—the King of Greece’s 60th birthday party—knowing Camilla will be there. It was interpreted as a sign that she’s comfortable with the relationship.
Charles and Camilla announced their engagement in February in 2005, 35 years after they first met. They married in a civil ceremony on April 8, with Prince William serving as best man. The Queen did not attend the wedding, but she did attend the reception. Camilla is given the title Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall in order for Diana to remain the only Princess of Wales.
Gradual Acceptance
Although Camilla played a significant role in the breakup of Charles’ first marriage, her down-to-Earth style and sense of humor eventually won over many Britons. Her warmth softened the Charles’ hard edges and made him appear more approachable, if not happier, as he cut ribbons, unveiled plaques and waited for his chance to reign.
At the time of their marriage, royal aides had suggested that Camilla did not want to be called queen and “intended” to be known instead as Princess Consort — a first in British history. But the careful use of the word ‘’intend’’ led to the possibility of change later on.
The move is seen as an effort to safeguard a smooth transition to the future as the queen navigates the twilight of her reign.
“This is the most extraordinary message. The queen is ensuring the transition, when it comes, to her son as king is as seamless and trouble-free as possible,’’ former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt told the Press Association. “She’s future-proofing an institution she’s served for 70 years. And for Camilla, the journey from being the third person in a marriage to queen-in-waiting is complete.”
With inputs from AFP, Associated Press
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