Queen Camilla hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with her husband's family. From some family members
keeping their distance to one person's long held grudge over her affair with King Charles III,
Camilla's relationship with the royals can be pretty awkward.
When you think of Queen Camilla and Princess Diana as friends, you can't help but cringe a
little. The two knew each other prior to the affair that would break up Diana's marriage,
and while they weren't besties, they did go out for lunch once. In Andrew Morton's book, "Diana:
In Her Own Words," the late princess recounts her first interaction with Camilla, saying,
"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."
Royal biographer Penny Junor told the Daily Mail that Diana and Charles paid frequent visits to
the Parker Bowles household in the early days of their relationship. According to Morton's book,
the princess-to-be soon started to suspect that Charles and Camilla were closer than she'd thought
at first. After Diana and Charles got engaged, Camilla sent her a letter. In the letter,
Camilla congratulated Diana and invited her for lunch. She also said that she'd "love to
see" Diana's ring. Diana would later tell Morton that it was a pretty awkward lunch.
To make things even more uncomfortable, Camilla was invited to and attended Charles and Diana's
wedding. At this point, Diana knew that Charles used to date Camilla and was
still in love with her. Then, in 1989, the two women's relationship turned downright
hostile after Diana confronted Camilla at a party about her affair with Charles.
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage. So, it was a bit crowded."
Prince Harry's memoir "Spare" dropped several bombshells, one of which is that he and Prince
William begged King Charles III not to marry Queen Camilla after their mother's death. It
appears Harry and Camilla continue to be polite toward one another, but they don't have a close
relationship. During his interview with Michael Strahan on "Good Morning America," Prince Harry
admitted that he and his stepmother hadn't been in contact for a "long time. However,
the Duke of Sussex emphasized that he still loved his family regardless of their disagreements.
This doesn't mean that Harry's relationship with
Camilla has the potential to become all warm and fuzzy.
"So, when I see her, we're perfectly pleasant with each other."
In a "60 Minutes" interview with Anderson Cooper,
however, Prince Harry spoke about his father and Camilla's affair and
confirmed that he and William didn't want their dad to remarry. Harry told Cooper:
"We thought that it was going to cause more harm
than good. Why go that far when you don't necessarily need to?"
Clearly, Harry and Camilla's relationship was destined to
be somewhat uncomfortable from the start.
While William, Prince of Wales, might have a slightly warmer relationship with Queen Camilla
than Prince Harry, the two are definitely not very close. And according to royal author Angela Levin,
William had made it abundantly clear to Camilla that she's not his mother, and will never be able
to fill Princess Diana's shoes. In her book, "Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort,"
Levin explained that Camilla never really had any maternal influence over William and Harry.
By the time she married King Charles, William and Harry were in their 20s. Levin wrote in her book:
"She was more of a friendly grown-up they saw occasionally at royal gatherings. She
tried to be encouraging rather than influential."
In her book, Levin describes the relationship between the
queen consort and the prince in detail. While it's not too shocking that William
flat-out told Camilla that she's not his mother, it is surprising that he's
also keeping some distance between her and his children. Levin wrote:
"William has made it clear that Camilla is the wife of his father,
but not a step-grandmother to his children."
Apparently, William's three children know that they shouldn't refer to Camilla as
their grandmother. According to Levin, Camilla does not mind this
at all and is happy not to take on any responsibilities as a step-grandmother.
You might have heard whispers that Queen Camilla didn't initially want Catherine,
Princess of Wales, to join the family and even tried to break her and Prince William
up. While speaking to the Daily Beast, royal biographer Christopher Andersen claimed that
Camilla did not think someone like Catherine, who was a regular citizen when she met William,
was fit to join the royal ranks. Her supposed plans to break up the couple for good backfired,
but it appears the queen consort still likes to show Catherine who's boss.
Camilla and Catherine's relationship isn't exactly a warm one, an insider claimed to
Radar. The source went on to add that Camilla's new title means she has a little more authority
over members of the family, and that Catherine would have to "fall in line." Other sources
claimed that Catherine is irritated with the way Camilla is abusing her newfound
power. According to Andersen, some of the more unflattering stories the media has published
about Catherine came from none other than Camilla's people. He told the Daily Beast:
"It's a subtle war but it's an ongoing one."
Princess Anne and Queen Camilla's relationship has been complicated, to say the least. This is
largely due to the relationship Princess Anne had with Camilla's ex-husband Andrew Parker
Bowles in the '70s, according to Angela Levin's "Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall:
A Royal Survivor." Levin also revealed in her book that Anne was strongly opposed to Camilla
becoming queen consort one day and believed that she could never be "a true queen." Furthermore,
Levin claimed that Princess Anne kept Camilla at arm's length for years.
While speaking to Channel 5,
royal author Penny Junor had this to add about the two women's relationship:
"Princess Anne is quite a tricky character and she can be quite abrasive."
"I think that over the years, Camilla has been slightly intimidated by her."
The two did seem to get on better as the years wore on, however. Body language expert Judi
James told Express that early pictures of the two women suggested they preferred to ignore
each other and keep their distance. Nowadays, however, their body language is much friendlier.
Royal fans all know that Queen Camilla and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York,
don't exactly get along. Actually, they were never close to begin with. By the
time Camilla was allowed to publicly be with King Charles in 1999, Sarah and Prince Andrew
were divorced. Sarah is also said to have had a close friendship with Princess Diana at one point,
which means a potential friendship with Camilla had always been unlikely. While
they seemed to tolerate each other for the most part, word got out about a fight the
pair of royals had while attending a summer retreat at Balmoral in 2018.
A royal source dished to New Idea that the two women got into it while the family was
enjoying after-dinner drinks. Apparently, Sarah had never discussed Diana with Camilla. However,
the queen consort's involvement in Diana's crumbling marriage had been
bugging the duchess for a while. So it appears that being around Camilla
made those feelings bubble up to the surface. The tipster told New Idea:
"Fergie couldn't hold it in anymore and really let Camilla have it. She and Camilla
have never seen eye-to-eye, but being at Balmoral brought back a lot of memories
of Diana. [...] So it was only a matter of time before she let Camilla have it."
When Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, first joined the family, it appeared
that she and Queen Camilla got along pretty well. In the unauthorized biography "Meghan:
A Hollywood Princess," Andrew Morton claims that Meghan and Camilla bonded over their
shared interest in yoga and wine. The day after Prince Harry and Meghan went
public with their engagement, People reported that Camilla told the press,
"America's loss is our gain. We are all absolutely delighted."
Camilla also reportedly offered Meghan some helpful advice on how to cope with royal life.
Unfortunately, things quickly went sideways. Their relationship began to deteriorate after Meghan
paid a private visit to the National Theatre and had the pictures published the same day Camilla
was delivering an important speech to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Women of the World
Festival in London. Meghan's pictures dominated the news cycle instead of Camilla's speech,
which left her incredibly upset, an insider told the Mirror. The source told the outlet:
"Everyone was in agreement that Camilla's speech should
take precedence. ­Unfortunately some people had other ideas."
This seemed to be the beginning of the end of the warm relationship between
Meghan and Camilla. In one ITV News clip that went viral on social media,
Camilla was asked whether she was going to miss Harry and Meghan when they leave the royal
family. The queen consort seemed to consider the question for a moment, and then replied,
"Hmmm, 'course!" While her relationship with some of the royal
family members is clearly more than just a little complicated, Queen Camilla's relationship with
the British public has evolved quite a bit over the years. She had a rocky start with the press
and the public, with many painting her as the villain, especially after Princess Diana's death.
Things were already looking dire for the future queen consort when her affair with
King Charles became public knowledge in the '90s, but it became downright awful after
Diana's passing. According to Reuters, one of Diana's mourners said to the press at the time:
"Camilla should leave the country. Without the mistress, none of this would've happened."
It seemed that many shared that sentiment, with a television poll showing that the majority
of people believed Charles should be denied the throne if he married Camilla. In short,
it was not pretty, and it must have been terrible for Camilla.
Royal biographer Tina Brown told The Washington Post that the public abuse
Camilla endured even before Diana's passing was unimaginable. Brown told the newspaper:
"She was called hag, old bag, witch. I mean,
these were the kind of words that were used about Camilla for years."
The public eventually warmed to her, thanks in part to the great efforts
made by the palace. PR executive Roddi Vaughan-Thomas told NBC News in 2017:
"Her image has been transformed, a carefully managed makeover,
and they have done a fantastic job rehabilitating her [reputation]."