Thanks to Netflix's "The Crown," Camilla Parker Bowles' love affair with Prince Charles has
become public knowledge. But you probably don't know everything about the duchess, like
her unusual dating history or her terrifying hate mail.
Camilla Parker Bowles stands out from the royal crowd. For instance, she's a divorcee,
she comes across as rather normal, and, of course, she's been at the center of one of
the world's most infamous love triangles for decades. And oddly enough, one area where
she seems to differ from the rest of the royal family is her taste in television. It's been
reported that Parker Bowles is a viewer of "The Crown," the hit Netflix series that dramatizes
the royal family's tumultuous history. An inside source told Vanity Fair,
"The queen has no desire to watch herself in a fictitious TV program, while [Princess]
Anne has no time for such nonsense."
However, an alleged friend of Parker Bowles told Vanity Fair,
"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."
A "family friend" also confirmed that Parker Bowles' doesn't have any issues with the fictitious
show, a strange opinion compared to the rest of the royal family.
It's always strange to find out that some of the most proper among us used to lead far
less extravagant lives, especially when it comes to the royal family, but that seems
to be the case for Camilla Parker Bowles. While she grew up within Britain's noble class,
and her family's estate was on a 5.7-acre plot, being the picture of properness wasn't
ever her goal.
According to reports, Parker Bowles was a "tomboy" who was far more popular with the
boys in her classes than she was with the girls. As a fellow former student told the
New York Post,
"She could talk to boys about things that interested them [...] She was never a girls'
girl. She was always a boy's girl."
The same source revealed that, by the time Parker Bowles left school, she allegedly had
a "sexy confidence" when it came to men, and was considered to be "quite a flirt."
We all know what it's like to get a little bit of flack for something we've posted on
the internet. But where things really crossed the line and became slightly horrifying for
Camilla Parker Bowles was when the police had to get involved over the amount of hate
mail directed at her.
In fact, media outlet Tatler had to call the police over the hate mail that they were receiving
regarding Camilla. Described as "so cruel and deranged," the letters targeting the Duchess
of Cornwall were next-level scary.
At the height of her infamy, the amount of photographers outside her home became a normal
part of life — which is anything but normal. Her son, Tom Parker Bowles, explained,
"The paparazzi used to follow us everywhere and lurk around like spooks. We used to keep
binoculars in my mother's bathroom, and one of us would look out every morning to see
how many paparazzi were hiding in the bushes."
Imagining Camilla Parker Bowles having a regular day job does seem a bit odd, but she actually
had a pretty normal position that eventually ended in her termination. Designer Imogen
Taylor recalled a young Parker Bowles working for the interior design company Colefax and
Fowler. It was the 1960s, and Parker Bowles was an up-and-coming debutante trying to make
a name for herself in the bustling London scene, when she took a job as an assistant
at the company. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Taylor revealed,
"She worked for us for a moment but got the sack."
In her book, "On the Fringe: A Life in Decorating," Taylor revealed that, oddly enough, Parker
Bowles was frowned-upon by her then-boss, Tom Parr, and after a night of dancing, angered
him after arriving late for work.
We all know that Prince Charles ended up marrying Diana Spencer, and most of us know that Camilla
Parker Bowles was initially married to Andrew Parker Bowles. But it turns out that Camilla
was all but forced into her first marriage. It turns out that Andrew's brother and Camilla's
father took it upon themselves to match-make by inserting themselves into Camilla's on-off
relationship with Andrew.
Concerned about Andrew's willingness to commit to his then-girlfriend of almost seven years,
the father-brother duo reportedly submitted an engagement announcement to The Times on
behalf of the couple, even though no such engagement had taken place. In her book "Prince
Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life," author Sally Bedell Smith
detailed the very strange move, revealing that Camilla's first husband was essentially
cornered into a proposal, writing,
"His hand publicly forced, Andrew proposed."
Sadly, the marriage was allegedly fraught with infidelity, and Camilla and Andrew eventually
divorced in 1995.
Call it a strange coincidence, but Camilla Parker Bowles' great-grandmother and Prince
Charles' great-great-grandfather were also adulteress lovers. Charles and Camilla first
met when they were in their early 20s. Per the New York Post, Parker Bowles curtsied
and then immediately said to the prince,
"My great-grandmother and your great-great-grandfather were lovers. So how about it?"
She was referring to her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, who was King Edward VII's mistress.
Keppel famously once said,
"My job is to curtsy first and then jump into bed."
It is a little bit strange to think that royal infidelity runs in the family. Reportedly,
Parker Bowles would tell people that, due to Keppel's affiliation, her family was, quote,
"practically royal." Lynn Redgrave, who attended the same school as the duchess, alleged that
for Camilla,
"Landing a rich husband was the top of the agenda."
Pulling off an affair is a skillset that not many of us strive to have, but both Prince
Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles reportedly got used to the practice. As noted by the
New York Post,
"Charles' valet [...] was instructed to treat Parker Bowles as mistress of the prince's
official residence, Highgrove."
And despite being assigned her own room at the property, Parker Bowles and the prince
reportedly went to great lengths to spend each night together. Per the New York Post,
"A guest room was assigned to her, but after midnight the Prince of Wales would switch
off the elaborate alarm system guarding his room so that Camilla could sneak in. [Charles'
valet] was told to mess up the bed in Camilla’s room so that the servants would think she
had slept in it."
Similarly, Parker Bowles' home was reportedly set up in order to maintain the affair. Royal
protection officers would notify Parker Bowles when Charles would be heading her way, and
as such, every light in the house would be turned off, per the New York Post,
"[S]o he could pull inside the driveway without being spotted — a bit of espionage Camilla’s
servants called 'The Blackout.'"
As a result, this apparently coined the nickname "The Prince of Darkness" for Charles.
"Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
A lot of us would naturally think that because Camilla Parker Bowles is married to Prince
Charles, who will ultimately be king, Parker Bowles would become queen alongside him. Strangely,
this isn't the case. Instead, it's been reported that Charles will most likely adopt the name
King George VII when he is crowned and Parker Bowles will be named princess consort rather
than queen. This is similar to Prince Philip, who was the prince consort during his life
and marriage to the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
"There's only room for one sovereign at a time, not two."
In a twist, however, Charles could name Parker Bowles queen consort if he wanted to, as he'll
have the power to do so as king. As for why he might avoid giving his wife this role,
though, the majority of Britons reportedly still don't like Parker Bowles. In a poll
conducted by YouGov, it was found that only 33% of people approve of Parker Bowles, which
is not exactly the support you want when you're going to rule over the Commonwealth.
It seemed as though the world would've ended before the heir to the British throne would
get divorced, but that's what happened in 1996. Prince Charles and Diana Spencer had
separated a few years prior, but after the princess' sit-down interview with the BBC
in 1995, the two were left with no choice other than to call it quits. So what did Charles
do once his divorce was settled? Commence "Operation Parker Bowles," of course. Apparently,
Charles embarked upon the plan designed to set Camilla Parker Bowles' public introduction
in motion. This once would've been unthinkable for the royal family, and yet somehow it happened.
Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles had separated in 1995 after 22 years of marriage. After
Charles and Diana split, he asked his private secretary to come up with the top secret plan
in May 1997. As Lady Elsa Bowker told the New York Post,
"Camilla started plotting to become the next queen [...] Diana was out of the way and Camilla
wanted more."
We all know that the royal family has high expectations for those who marry its members,
but a lot of us have asked ourselves at some point why Prince Charles and Camilla Parker
Bowles didn't get married to begin with. Why put Diana Spencer and Andrew Parker Bowles
through divorces, when the now-married duo could've tied the knot decades ago? Sadly,
a strange and outdated reason was used as the royal family's justification for keeping
the couple apart, and that's that Camilla was apparently too experienced when it came
to men and dating. Additionally, her background was not "aristocratic" enough to fit the bill.
Lord Mountbatten even wrote about the kind of woman Charles should marry in a letter
to the prince during his dating years, saying,
"In a case like yours, the man should sow his wild oats and have as many affairs as
he can before settling down. But I think for a wife he should choose a suitable attractive
and sweet-character girl before she has met anyone else she might fall for."
"I've come to the conclusion that really it would've been far easier to have had two wives."
When Camilla Parker Bowles was married to Andrew Parker Bowles, they had two children,
Tom and Laura. Now, we all know that Camilla and Charles would go on to have an affair,
but before they rekindled their romance, Camilla asked Charles to be Tom's godfather. Even
if Charles and Camilla were not romantic at the time, it was still an odd choice given
their history.
In an interview with The Times, Tom shared what it's been like having the heir to the
throne in his life, more so as a godfather than as a stepfather. Tom shared that while
the past was tough, he still has a lot of affection for Charles. He called the prince
"sweet and gentle," and further said that Charles is, quote, "ahead of his time," most
likely alluding to the royal's dedication to environmental causes.
To say that Camilla Parker Bowles' life has been exciting, strange, and fascinating is
an understatement. After all, she has been in the public eye for decades, and we can't
even begin to imagine what kind of toll that takes on an individual. As it turns out, Parker
Bowles has been rather up front regarding her transformation in the spotlight, and in
a sit-down with the Daily Mail, she shared her thoughts on the matter. The duchess revealed,
"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.'"
So what does the duchess do to try to keep herself as authentic and grounded as possible?
She's surrounded herself with friends who keep her in line. As Parker Bowles shared,
"If I ever even vaguely look like getting uppity, which touch wood I never have, they
would just say, 'Look, come on, pull yourself together! Don't be so bloody grand!'"
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