Born into an aristocratic British family, Camilla Parker Bowles first met Prince Charles in 1972,
beginning an enduring romance. However, she'd soon find herself depicted as the
villain in a whole other love story. Here's the truth about Camilla Parker Bowles.
Prince Charles' former valet revealed in the documentary Serving the Royals: Inside the Firm,
"[Prince Charles'] pajamas are pressed every morning, his shoelaces are pressed flat with
an iron, the bath plug has to be in a certain position [...] He has his valets
squeeze one inch of toothpaste onto his toothbrush every morning."
Hopefully his wife has a similar staffer to pick up after her,
if the claims of Camilla Parker Bowles' former roommate are anything to go
by. According to the 2017 tell-all The Duchess of Cornwall: Camilla's Story and Secrets,
"[Camilla was a] total slob. [...] Upon coming home,
she would just drop her clothes on the floor on her way to her bedroom."
Meanwhile, another so-called friend alleged in the book,
"Camilla's bedroom always looked like a bomb had hit it."
However, Parker Bowles' former roommate was quick to point out the duchess' good qualities too
and told the author of The Duchess of Cornwall: Camilla's Story and Secrets,
"[Camilla was] warm-hearted, dependable and good fun to be with,
and so nice that her untidiness did not matter. [...] Camilla was so sweet it was
impossible to be angry with her. [...] She was like a big, boisterous puppy."
While Camilla Parker Bowles had been a lifelong smoker,
Prince Charles reportedly despised the habit. In fact, Camilla had some very specific instructions
for servants when it came to her cigarettes, as the book Not In Front Of The Corgis detailed,
"Footmen are instructed to place silver cigarette boxes containing her favorite brand [of cigarette]
in every room [...] matchbox holders in solid silver containers are placed upright near at
hand with one match half withdrawn so she does not have to scrabble about looking for a light."
The duchess eventually quit smoking for health reasons, with a source telling the Daily Mail,
"She had a persistent cough which she couldn't shake off [...] It wasn't connected to her
smoking but she decided it was a good opportunity. [...] She's been trying to
give up for as long as I have known her but this time she's given up for good."
According to the Daily Mail, Camilla reportedly joked to a friend,
"It wasn't so much me giving up smoking, rather smoking giving up on me."
Royal wives traditionally take on their husband's titles. For instance,
Diana Spencer became the Princess of Wales upon marrying Prince Charles. After Diana's death
and Charles' subsequent marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, under normal circumstances she would have
become the next Princess of Wales. Instead, Parker Bowles is commonly referred to as the
Duchess of Cornwall, as the Duke of Cornwall is a title held by a reigning monarch's eldest son.
There's a good reason that Parker Bowles isn't referred to as the Princess of Wales.
As royal expert Marlene Koenig explained to Town & Country,
"Camilla was not popular or well liked [when she married Prince Charles]. [...] Still, [there was]
a lot of tension and anger among a certain element of the population — so it was decided that Camilla
would be styled as the Duchess of Cornwall, even though, of course, she is the Princess of Wales."
As one of her official duties, Camilla Parker Bowles paid a 2018 visit to London's Garden Museum
and certainly seemed to enjoy herself. At the time, the duchess said, per the Express,
"I'd be here all day given half the chance."
During her visit, Camilla took in an exhibit commemorating British Flowers Week and met
with representatives of the charity Floral Angels, which recycles flowers used at events
by transforming them into floral bouquets that are then given to homeless shelters,
hospices, and other venues. While creating her own bouquet, the Duchess of Cornwall quipped,
"Joking apart, I would do this every day if I could. [...] I'd be out in my garden all day,
every day if I were allowed. I love to get my hands dirty."
In 2020, Camilla took her love of gardening to the British airwaves when she called in
to popular British radio show Gardeners' Question Time to ask some questions about
lavender. In the course of that chat, she described herself as a "passionate gardener."
Some of the most enduring public moments between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles happen
when the pair erupts into giggle fits. For instance, during a royal visit to Canada,
the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall were being entertained by the ancient
Inuit tradition of throat singing, and the pair looked at each other and
literally collapsed into laughter. Parker Bowles revealed that seeing the funny side
in every situation is simply part of her personality, and told the Daily Mail,
"You’ve got to laugh through most things, and sometimes I do laugh a bit too much.
There are situations where it’s very difficult not to lose it completely,
especially, you know, if something goes terribly wrong and everybody sits there for a split second
[not sure how to react]. You do have to swallow and pinch yourself very hard to not laugh."
Camilla Parker Bowles considers herself to be something of an expert at the art of conversation,
which has served her well while carving out a reputation as one of the busiest
senior royals. However, she apparently wasn't born with this particular talent.
Instead, it's a learned skill that was drilled into her by her mother
at a young age. The Duchess of Cornwall confessed in an interview with the Daily Mail,
"My mother could be quite fierce sometimes. I remember once there was a dinner party at
home with some of the most boring neighbors in the world [...] she’d sit us down at the dinner table,
and the minute there was silence, she used to say, 'Talk! I don’t care what you talk about,
talk about your budgie or your pony but keep the conversation going.'"
As a result, Parker Bowles learned how to always fill a silence when needed.
Camilla Parker Bowles was born Camilla Shand, and she boasts a prestigious family tree whose
roots extend to some unexpected places. According to the Daily Mail, Camilla has
a number of well-known, distant relatives who are arguably even more famous than she is.
Thanks to some mutual 17th-century French-Canadian relations, the duchess
is actually related to both Madonna and Céline Dion, who are her 10th cousins.
In addition, the Daily Mail claimed that Angelina Jolie is the Duchess of Cornwall's ninth cousin,
and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is her 10th cousin.
Camilla also reportedly has some other famous Canadians as distant relatives,
including pop prince Justin Bieber and country queen Shania Twain.
The Duchess of Cornwall can also count her own husband, Prince Charles, as her ninth cousin,
which is more than a little awkward. Interestingly,
two of their ancestors had some history together, as Parker Bowles'
great-grandmother was the mistress of King Edward VII, Charles' great-great grandfather.
According to the book Notorious Royal Marriages: A Juicy Journey Through Nine Centuries of Dynasty,
Destiny, and Desire, the first time Camilla met Charles she reportedly quipped,
"My great-grandmother and your great-great grandfather were lovers so — how about it?"
When Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrated her 94th birthday in April 2020,
eventually shuffles off this mortal coil, Prince Charles will become king.
That would make his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, the new queen. However,
the question of whether she'll one day be known as Queen Camilla is actually somewhat murky.
According to Tatler, when Camilla married Charles in 2005, the official line was
that she would be known as Princess Consort, not Queen Consort, when Charles became king.
Clarence House was even forced to issue a statement about Camilla future status, which said,
"The intention is for the Duchess to be known
as Princess Consort when the Prince accedes to the throne."
The release of the fourth season of The Crown in November 2020
brought a renewed interest in the history of Prince Charles' doomed marriage to Princess
Diana and the scandalous role that Camilla Parker Bowles played in its disintegration.
Meanwhile, fans of the show couldn't help but wonder if the royals themselves watched the
show to see how their lives had been dramatized in the Netflix series. According to The Sun,
Prince Charles reportedly claimed he'd never seen it, while a royal source added,
"His Royal Highness has absolutely no views about it. He has never watched The Crown."
However, an unnamed friend of Camilla insisted that the duke and duchess had seen the show,
as she told Vanity Fair,
"She has watched it, of course she has and I believe [Charles] has too [...] I
imagine she'll be tuning in with a glass of red wine to watch it, she has seen the
previous series [...] She has a wonderful sense of humor and this won't fuss her in the slightest."
"I'm not sure one can say the same for the rest of us."
The passage of time has made it easy to forget what a controversial figure
Camilla Parker Bowles once was in the midst of Prince Charles' separation from Princess Diana.
At the time, the public narrative held that Diana was the wronged young wife, and Camilla,
the scheming homewrecker. While the truth was far more complicated, what wasn't in
dispute was Camilla's reputation, which was in absolute tatters. As the Express wrote,
"[Camilla was once described as] the most hated woman in Britain."
Those were dark and painful days for Camilla. As she candidly told The Telegraph in 2017,
"I couldn't really go anywhere. It was horrid. It was a deeply
unpleasant time and I wouldn't put my worst enemy through it."
It would seem appropriate for a mother to attend the wedding of her eldest son,
yet when Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles shared their big day, the queen did not attend.
According to The Telegraph, the queen told a friend that attending the couple's civil
marriage ceremony was "incompatible" with her role as head of the Church of England, and she didn't
want to set a precedent that could later damage the church. The monarch allegedly told her friend,
"I am not able to go [...] I do not feel that my position
[as Supreme Governor of the Church] permits it."
While the media reported that the queen snubbed Prince Charles' wedding to Camilla because she
disapproved of their relationship, a "senior royal official" confirmed,
"The Queen takes her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of
England incredibly seriously [...] She also has great personal faith."
However, the queen did attend the subsequent Service of Prayer and Dedication held at
Windsor Castle to celebrate the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall's marriage.
"Love begins small but always grows."
It's not difficult to see that Prince Charles' relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles has been
a long and winding road. And while they ultimately ended up married, getting there was no mean feat.
Which raises the obvious question: why didn't Charles simply marry Camilla in the first place?
"That crisis has been with us for far too many years."
According to Town & Country, there are actually several reasons that Charles and Camilla didn't
wed when they first met, one of which was bad timing. Just as things were heating up between
the couple, Charles was sent on an eight-month deployment with the Royal Navy as part of his
military service. As a result, Camilla ended up getting back together with her former boyfriend,
Andrew Parker Bowles, whom she then married.
Meanwhile, Camilla's reputation didn't do her any favors within royal circles,
as royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith wrote,
"The conventions of the time called for the heir to the British throne to marry a woman
who at least appeared to be virginal."
Throughout all of her ups and downs, Camilla Parker Bowles has
always tried to maintain her sense of humor,
particularly when it comes to herself. As she explained in an interview with the Daily Mail,
"You also have to laugh at yourself because if you can't, you may as well give up. I sometimes think
to myself, 'Who is this woman? It can't possibly be me.' And that's really how you survive."
Despite being a member of the royal family, she also tries to stay grounded. For that,
she admitted, she tends to rely on her long-time friends. As she quipped,
"if I ever even vaguely look like getting uppity [...] they would just say, 'Look,
come on, pull yourself together! Don't be so bloody grand!'"
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