You probably don't know all that much about Camilla Parker Bowles' ex-husband,
Andrew Parker Bowles. After all, the pair got divorced many, many years ago.
Here's what you need to know about the man the Duchess of Cornwall married before Prince Charles.
Despite never being a royal himself, Andrew Parker Bowles served his country when he was
in the military. In fact, according to the Animals in War Memorial Fund,
"[Andrew Parker Bowles] was an officer in The Household Cavalry and Royal Army Veterinary
Corps from 1960 to 1995 and was awarded The Queen's Commendation for Bravery."
That's a long time to be in the army, and an impressive award for Andrew's service
to his country. As Prince Charles was also in the Royal Air Force for a time,
it would be safe to assume that Camilla Parker Bowles has a type and loves a man in uniform.
Obviously, after Andrew and Camilla Parker Bowles went their separate ways and got divorced,
she would go on to become a major player in the royal family.
But before any of that happened, Andrew also got pretty familiar with royalty.
Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told Vanity Fair that Andrew had already had a relationship
with the royal family before anything happened between Camilla and Prince Charles. Specifically,
he was very close with Charles' younger sister, Princess Anne. As Smith told Vanity Fair,
"Anne and Andrew started dating in June 1970. [...] Anne and Antdrew enjoyed
each other's company, but they could never marry because he was a Catholic."
Smith added that the pair had met at the 1970 Royal Ascot,
when Andrew received a very special invitation from the royal family to celebrate with them.
So while Andrew and Camilla were seeing each other on and off,
he'd also started to date Anne, something that was explored in Netflix's "The Crown." In fact,
there was basically a love quadrangle going on, as royal biographer Penny Junor told Marie Claire,
"[Camilla] was passionately in love with [Andrew] but he was a cad, he was bonking other people,
some of her friends. So when she was introduced to Charles [...] and she thought 'Andrew is [...] off
with Princess Anne [...] teach Andrew a lesson.' So she had a fling with Charles."
Though Andrew Parker Bowles isn't in the spotlight as much as his ex-wife,
he's still an important part of her life. And that's because they share two children,
and neither went on to have anymore kids.
Camilla and Andrew's oldest son, Tom Parker Bowles, was born on December 18, 1974,
and works as a food writer. Andrew and Camilla also welcomed a baby girl, Laura Parker Bowles,
on New Year's Day in 1978. Laura founded an art gallery in London, and got married to Harry Lopes,
with whom she has three children, making Camilla and Andrew grandparents.
Speaking of "The Crown," the show is known to have some historical inaccuracies to make the
series more dramatic. Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith revealed that one such inaccuracy
was the series insinuating that the Queen Mother had secret meetings
to make sure Camilla didn't marry Prince Charles, but instead married Andrew Parker Bowles.
"Andrew Parker Bowles,
Camilla's first love and the man she's still devoted to." "She's not devoted to Charles?"
Additionally, Camilla's affair with Charles
wasn't even on the Queen Mother's radar, as Smith told Vanity Fair,
"Interfering like that is something the queen would never do [...] It
was highly unlikely that she even knew about Charles and Camilla.
It was generally known that Camilla was in love with Andrew Parker Bowles and wanted
to marry him. But no one took the romance between Charles and Camilla seriously."
In January 1995, Andrew and Camilla Parker Bowles announced they were getting divorced,
and as Prince Charles and Princess Diana had separated a few years prior,
everyone knew what would happen next. In fact, Diana even subtly admitted that
Charles and Camilla wanted to be together during her famous interview with the BBC.
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
Andrew was able to move on fairly quickly, as he remarried in 1996, a year after his divorce
from Camilla was finalized. According to Harper's Bazaar, Rosemary Parker Bowles, a garden designer,
was also previously married and had three children. Additionally,
the couple was also friendly with Camilla and Charles, despite their complicated history.
Sadly, Andrew's second wife, Rosemary, passed away on January 10, 2010,
from cancer, leaving behind Andrew and her three children. Fortunately for Rosemary and Andrew,
she was still able to have been there for some pretty huge milestones.
According to Hello! magazine, Henry Pitman, one of Rosemary's children, said,
"She was very pleased to have made Christmas and then Andrew's birthday,
his 70th, just after Christmas, and subsequently the birth of his grandchildren."
Princess Anne was there at Rosemary's funeral to comfort her good friend Andrew.
Throughout his life, Andrew has remained close to the royal family,
so it's nice that they were there for him during such a hard time.
In 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak afflicted nations all over the world, Andrew Parker Bowles
was unfortunately impacted by the disease. And because of Andrew's proximity to the royals,
his diagnosis was obviously the talk of the town, and as it happened early on during the pandemic.
In April 2020, Andrew was diagnosed with COVID-19, sparking renewed interest
in his relationship with Anne. This is because Andrew was seen at the Cheltenham Festival with
Anne and others, meaning he could have exposed the royal family to COVID-19.
Luckily, Andrew recovered from the virus, but it couldn't have been easy.
Andrew Parker Bowles isn't on social media, and while he continues to remain
close to the royal family, he's still a relatively private person. After all,
having had his relationships with Princess Anne and Camilla Parker Bowles talked about so
openly in the press, it makes sense that Andrew wouldn't want to be in the spotlight anymore.
According to Town & Country, Andrew has kept a low profile, especially after his second
wife's death. However, with the success of Netflix's "The Crown," Andrew's life
is once again in the public interest, so his decision to stay out of the public eye
might also be strategic. Considering the fact that he was around while Prince Charles was cheating on
Princess Diana with Camilla, his own wife, people are naturally curious about him. But really,
he's moved on from it all and is just living his best life.
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