Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles have been married since the mid-2000s, and although
we now know of Camilla as the Duchess of Cornwall, she once lived a more ordinary life as a married
mother of two.
In 1974, shortly after Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, the couple welcomed their first
child, Thomas. And, in 1978, Camilla gave birth to a daughter, Laura. According to royal
expert and biographer Penny Junor's book The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love
Affair That Rocked the Crown, Camilla is close with both of her biological children. Both
Thomas and Laura are also described as being "protective" of their now-royal mother.
While you've likely become accustomed to seeing Camilla with Prince Charles' side of the family,
her children with ex-husband Andrew are still very much a part of her life. In The Duchess,
Junor shared that Camilla spends "most weekends" with her side of the family. Junor continued,
"She has kept the house in the country that she had before she married the Prince and
goes there as often as she can, and she is joined there by her family."
According to the royal biographer, Camilla isn't the only one who carves out time to
spend with her children.
"Often the Prince quietly joins her. Normality is not something he has had much experience
of in his life."
Out in the country, he's afforded the opportunity.
Just as Camilla has known Charles for practically forever, Camilla's children have also known
the prince for a very, very long time. Nearly since birth, in Tom's case. As it happens,
the Duke of Cornwall was anointed as Tom's godfather long before he became his stepfather.
In the biography Prince Charles: The Passions and the Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, royal
biographer Sally Bedell Smith explained Charles' role in Camilla's son's life.
"As a conscientious godfather. Charles also followed the progress of Tom Parker Bowles,
sufficient grounds for calling Camilla from time to time."
Before Prince William and Prince Harry would attend Eton College, Tom's parents sent him
to the prestigious boarding school. Shocking as it may be, he was only 7 years old when
he left home to start attending Eton.
Tom admitted that he didn't work very hard during his first two years at the school.
It wasn't until his father threatened to send him to a different school that he "bucked
up and did some work." While Camilla has expressed regrets about sending her son off to boarding
school, Tom plans to send his own son to the school one day. However, he plans to wait
until his kid is at least a teenager.
The one thing Tom did well at Eton? According to him, smoking. And his habit would only
continue after graduating Eton and starting college. According to royal expert Katie Nicholl's
biography, William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls, Tom was, quote "caught in possession
of cannabis while reading English at Oxford [Brookes University]."
But that's not all. He was also, quote, "trapped into offering cocaine to an undercover reporter
in 1999 while working as a publicist at the Cannes Film Festival."
Tom himself confirmed in an interview with A Current Affair that he got "into all sorts
of trouble" during his teenage years.
"Whatever I was caught with, being naughty, drink, drugs, whatever it was, it was totally
my fault."
He may have dabbled in drugs as a teen, but Tom eventually cleaned himself up and started
getting serious about his career. In 2009, Press Gazette revealed that GQ hired Tom as
a contributing editor. Prior to accepting an editorial position, Tom was a contributor
to Tatler magazine and had started running his own food column for the Mail on Sunday.
When South China Morning Post asked Tom how he first got interested in writing about food,
he revealed,
"I was rubbish at everything else. I was sacked from every job I had."
Upon leaving university, he didn't know what career he wanted to pursue. After getting
fired from a job in the film industry, he approached the editors of Tatler and offered
to become their food writer — a position that didn't previously exist. Food writing
then became his bread and butter. Although he told the Evening Standard that his mother
wasn't much of a cook while he was growing up, he developed a love of food — especially
of the expensive variety. At that time, he admitted to spending around £2,000 per month
just on food.
Since Tom became a food writer, he's gone on to release several cookbooks, including
the 2017 Sunday Times bestseller The Cook Book: Fortnum & Mason. Tom's first foray into
cookbook-writing began in 2004 with E is for Eating: An Alphabet of Greed. In 2009 came
Full English: A Journey Through the British and Their Food, which earned Tom the Michael
Smith Award for Work on British Food by the Guild of Food Writers in 2010. Three years
later, he released his next book, The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure
in Search of Culinary Extremes.
In 2010, Tom was considered one of the "most exciting names in British cooking." He participated
in the Market Kitchen Cookbook, a book titled after the British television series in which
Tom is also featured. In addition to releasing his cookbooks over the years, he became a
judge on Food Glorious Food.
Not long after his first cookbook was published, Tom married then-32-year-old fellow writer
and editor Sara Buys. At the time, Buys was working as Harpers & Queen's fashion features
editor.
Although not a royal himself, Tom is affiliated with the royal family because of his mother's
position as a duchess. As such, he's subjected to much of the same tabloid coverage — positive
and negative. In 2018, rumors started swirling about possible relationship trouble between
Tom and his wife. Based on the reports, a divorce seemed imminent. However, the couple
is still together as of this video.
Amid rumors of a failing marriage, Tom Parker Bowles and his wife, Sara Buys, arrived together
at the 2018 Trooping the Colour. They also brought with them their two children, Lola
and Freddy.
While you may not have recognized them at the time, Tom and his family were in the audience
watching the parade along with other spectators. Looking back, you can really see the class
distinction that exists between the two families. "Commoners" Tom, his wife, and children were
standing behind a chain barricade at the late spring event while Tom's own mother, Camilla
Parker Bowles, was waving to the crowd alongside her very royal in-laws — including Queen
Elizabeth II herself — from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
At the Trooping the Colour parade in 2018, you wouldn't have spotted Tom Parker Bowles'
sister, Laura, because it seems she did not attend. That doesn't mean there's bad blood
between Laura and the royals. Well, we should say, there's no bad blood between Laura and
the royals anymore. At one point in time, they most definitely did not get along.
According to the biography William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls by royal expert Katie
Nicholl, Laura was not a fan of Prince Charles. When he would call to speak to her mother
at their house in Wiltshire, Laura would pick up a phone tied into the same line and yell,
"Why don't you stop calling Mummy and leave our family alone." As Nicholl explained, Laura,
quote "couldn't care less that it was the Prince of Wales," as "she blamed him for breaking
up her parents' marriage." Understandably, she was obviously not Charles' biggest fan.
Divorce can be hard on any child, but, thankfully, most children don't have to read about their
parents' divorce, and affairs, on the covers of magazines. According to William and Harry:
Behind the Palace Walls, both of Camilla Parker Bowles' biological children were, quote, "teased
mercilessly when intimate conversations between Charles and Camilla ended up in the British
press."
According to Biography.com, the transcripts of the couple's alleged telephone calls that
were made public in 1993 included commentary like Charles wishing to, quote, "live inside
[Camilla's] trousers." These tapes and the scandal that stemmed from them earned the
name "Camillagate" in the media and would follow the couple for years and years to come.
While this must've been humiliating for Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla, Tom and Laura
likely had to endure classmates mockery.
Laura and her brother, Tom, weren't the only ones who were forced to deal with the public
humiliation of a parent's affair. Princes William and Harry were going through the exact
same thing with their father, Prince Charles — at the exact same time, of course. Eventually,
this shared experience would bring Laura and William closer together. They weren't allies
from the get-go, though. Nicholl wrote that a family friend revealed,
"William would blame Camilla for all the hurt she had caused his mother, which would send
Laura into a rage. Laura was not having any of it. She would take a hard line and fire
back at William, 'Your father has ruined my life.'"
Despite the friction that occurred when blending these two families, William and Laura eventually
worked past their issues.
Unlike older brother Tom, Laura didn't get into any notable trouble with drugs or drinking
while attending school. After studying history at Oxford Brookes University, Laura went on
to complete an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim museum in Venice, Italy. Named after the 20th
century artist, the museum features many of Peggy Guggenheim's works as well as collections
from other artists. After Laura completed her internship in Italy, she moved back to
England and became the manager and art curator for Eleven Fine Art in Twickenham. There she
remained for ten years.
According to her website, Laura has curated several exhibitions over the years. The last
exhibition she curated appears to have been for The Frestonian Gallery in 2020, entitled
"Works on Paper."
Unlike her royal step-siblings, and even unlike her biological brother, Laura lives a very
under-the-radar life.
In 2006, 27-year-old Laura married Harry Lopes, a former Calvin Klein underwear model-turned-accountant,
at a church in her hometown of Wiltshire, as reported by BBC News. Although Laura values
her privacy, her wedding was a somewhat public affair with some 500 people waiting to get
a glimpse of Laura and the other royals in attendance. At the time, Prince William was
dating Kate Middleton, and the wedding provided the future Duchess of Cambridge a big opportunity.
According to Express, Laura's wedding was William and Kate's "first family outing."
Although there were already many rumors about their relationship and even photographs of
the couple from around that time, Kate's first formal event took place during Laura's big
day.
Later, when William and Kate married in 2011, Laura was a guest at their wedding. Laura
and her husband's daughter, then-3-year-old Eliza, served as a bridesmaid for the royal
couple.
Besides daughter Eliza, Laura also gave birth to two other kids. She and husband Harry welcomed
twin boys, Gus and Louis, in 2009. Hmm, does the name Louis ring any bells? Along with
marrying someone who shares the same name as her step-brother, Laura gave her son a
name that he'd wind up sharing with his future cousin.
Several days after Prince William and Kate Middleton welcomed their third child, Kensington
Palace revealed the infant prince's name. A statement as the time of birth read,
"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their son
Louis Arthur Charles. The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge."
According to Town & Country, the prince's first name is a tribute to the late Lord Louis
Mountbatten, Prince Philip's uncle. It also happens to be one of William's middle names.
While Camilla Parker Bowles' kids rub elbows with royals, they don't have royal titles
of their own. That could change when their stepfather takes the throne, though. This
would all be up to Prince Charles, of course, but Express noted that he could give them
royal titles once he's king. Then again, the royal reportedly wants to keep the monarchy
small, so the odds of him doing that might not be too high.
Even if Tom and Laura never become a prince and a princess, it seems likely they'll get
a share of Prince Charles' estimated $100 million fortune in his will.
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