Today, Camilla Parker Bowles is the Duchess of Cornwall, and a respected member of the
royal family, although that didn't happen overnight. Here's a look at how she has transformed
throughout her life, from her early days dating Prince Charles to her marriage to Andrew Parker
Bowles and beyond.
Camilla Shand may not have been born royal, but she was born into quite a wealthy family.
Her mother, Rosalind, was the daughter of a baron, while her father, Bruce, was a military
veteran and war hero. Both of her parents came from substantial fortunes of their own.
In fact, the future duchess was raised on a luxurious estate approximately 50 miles
south of London, and just a short drive from the seaside. While her home wasn't exactly
a palace, it was still a multi-million dollar estate, providing her with an upbringing that
would prepare her well for her future as a member of the royal family.
The young Camilla Shand didn't just grow up in a wealthy family, but a happy one, too.
While it was typical for someone of her wealth and upper-class background to have a nanny,
her mother, Rosalind, insisted on raising Camilla and her siblings, Annabel and Mark,
herself. Camilla's childhood friend and biographer William Shawcross told OK! magazine,
"Rosalind was fully with the kids all the time [...] Fun was one of the main things
I remember about the Shand household. There were ponies, dogs, picnics. [...] there was
no pomp, no snobbery."
Of her upbringing, Camilla herself told the Daily Mail's You magazine in 2017,
"We were brought up in a very happy family [...] it was idyllic."
At the age of 10, Camilla was sent to the boarding school Queen's Gate, staying on campus
throughout the week and going home on the weekends to go horseback riding and hunting.
Speaking to royal biographer Catherine Graham for her book "Camilla: Her True Story," Camilla's
classmates described her as a tomboy who had a large social circle. One of Camilla's friends
told Graham,
"She was quite commanding and would always have other girls around her. [...] There was
this daredevil element in her. [...] There is a certain boldness required to go riding,
hunting and jumping, and that shone through."
Other classmates recalled Camilla as being a bit of a flirt, with one of them telling
royal biographer Christopher Andersen for his book "Game of Crowns,"
"[Camilla had a] sexy confidence over men."
While Camilla flourished socially and athletically, she reportedly wasn't the best student. She
completed her studies at Queen's Gate with just one "O" level, a low passing grade.
After graduating from Queen's Gate, Camilla went to a Swiss Finishing School. She also
came into a substantial fortune, inheriting a $750,000 trust fund, the equivalent of more
than $6 million today. Camilla chose not to live off her nest egg, though, and landed
a job as an assistant at a decorating firm. Her time at the firm was short lived. Camilla's
co-worker Imogen Taylor wrote in her book "On the Fringe: A Life in Decorating" that
Camilla was fired for being late to work after a night of partying.
Camilla was already traveling in the upper-class social circles that would eventually bring
her face to face with Prince Charles, and she reportedly even shared an apartment with
other prominent socialites, both of whom also went on to have high-profile marriages.
Camilla's relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles was tumultuous long before Prince Charles
entered the picture. Good Housekeeping noted that Andrew also had a reputation for being
a party animal and was reluctant to give up his bachelor lifestyle. Royal biographer Penny
Junor wrote in "The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the
Crown" that the two first met in 1965.
"He was 25 and a rather beautiful officer in the Household Cavalry; she was 17 but remarkably
self-assured. Andrew went over to her and simply said, 'Let's dance.' They danced and
she fell in love."
During their long courtship, Andrew and Camilla broke up a number of times and saw different
people, with Andrew even dating Prince Charles' sister, Princess Anne, at one point. It was
during one of these breaks that Camilla met Prince Charles, which was well-documented
in Netflix's "The Crown." The two had a whirlwind romance, but it didn't last long as Prince
Charles was about to leave for naval duty. He departed without making a commitment to
Camilla, and she ended up marrying Andrew in 1974.
A lot of heartache could have been avoided had Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles
simply married each other instead of other people. There were a lot of obstacles in their
way, though. For starters, Camilla truly cared for Andrew Parker Bowles. Additionally, Camilla
simply wasn't considered to be aristocratic enough to be the future queen of England.
There's also the fact that Camilla wasn't a virgin when she and Prince Charles met each
other, which reportedly threw a wrench into their relationship. Per Penny Junor's book
"The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor," Prince Charles was advised by
his mentor, Lord Mountbatten in a letter,
"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."
It's possible that Prince Charles may have proposed anyway, had Camilla not already been
engaged by the time he completed his naval training. But, as royal biographer Sally Bedell
Smith revealed in "Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life," Camilla's
father and Andrew's brother were tired of seeing Andrew lead Camilla on.
"They intervened by publishing an engagement notice in The Times. His hand publicly forced,
Andrew proposed."
Camilla gave birth to her first child, Thomas, in 1974. Four years later, she welcomed her
second child, Laura. A source revealed to Vanity Fair that Camilla was, quote, "a wonderful
mother" who was often left to care for her children on her own as Andrew was in the military
and frequently away from home. Camilla discussed motherhood during an interview with the Daily
Mail's You magazine, and revealed,
"Our parents gave us a certain amount of freedom, and we had a really good time. We’ve brought
up our children in vaguely the same way. They’re very rooted, but I think that we were much
more respectful of our parents, certainly than Tom and Laura are of me."
Meanwhile, her son, Thomas, told the outlet,
"She has been an exceptional mother. Always. She never got cross about bad school reports,
getting into trouble and so on. She would come to Eton and take me out to McDonald's."
Even after she married Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla and Charles remained close. He was
reportedly a regular guest at parties thrown by Camilla and her husband, and the couple
also frequently found themselves as guests of the royal family.
"Mrs. Parker Bowles is a great friend of mine. I have a large number of friends I'm terribly
lucky to have."
Prince Charles was even named as a godfather to Camilla's son, Thomas. His friendship with
her continued even after he began courting Diana Spencer, and after Prince Charles proposed
to Diana in 1981, Camilla was apparently the first person he told after his parents.
Royal biographer Andrew Morton wrote in "Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words" that Princess
Diana had long been suspicious of her husband's relationship with Camilla. In her infamous
1995 BBC interview, she blamed Camilla for contributing to the breakdown of her marriage.
However, Prince Charles claimed in a TV interview in 1994 that he was faithful to Princess Diana
in the early years of their relationship, and that it wasn't until things had turned
rocky that he began his affair.
"Until it became irretrievably broken down."
The scandal attracted media scrutiny and public scorn, but Camilla remained stoic through
it all, even though she could barely leave her home due to paparazzi hiding on the grounds,
waiting to ambush her. As she told the Daily Mail's You magazine.
"It was horrid. It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn't want to put my worst enemy
through it."
Camilla's affair with Prince Charles contributed to his separation and divorce from Princess
Diana. It also contributed to the end of Camilla's own marriage with Andrew Parker Bowles, although
it wasn't the only reason things fell apart between the two, as Andrew was also unfaithful
to his wife, per Vanity Fair.
In spite of their mutual infidelities, the couple remained together even after Camilla's
relationship with Prince Charles became an open secret. The final straw, according to
Penny Junor's biography "The Duchess" was the publication of a leaked transcript of
a phone call between Charles and Camilla. In it, the couple spoke of their desire for
each other, with the two even joking about Charles living in Camilla's trousers so they
could always be together.
"I've come to the conclusion that really it would've been far easier to have had two wives."
The embarrassment was reportedly too much for Andrew, who finally demanded a divorce.
Their divorce was announced in 1995, although they had already been separated for two years.
Once Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were both divorced, there were still obstacles
to their union. His family still did not approve of Camilla, especially after their affair
caused a public scandal. Queen Elizabeth reportedly tried to break them up, but Prince Charles
would not back down. Eventually, she became resigned to the relationship.
The public was another matter, though. Prince Charles' future subjects had adored Princess
Diana and viewed Camilla as an interloper. This was especially true after Princess Diana's
death. Camilla remained out of the public eye for some time following Diana's death,
and after she emerged from her seclusion, she and Prince Charles gradually began making
appearances together, acclimating the nation to the idea of them as a couple.
The vitriol towards Camilla remained for years, however. As noted by CNN, public polls in
2005 showed that more than half of British subjects did not want to see Camilla as their
future queen.
Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles finally tied the knot in 2005. In spite of her previous
reservations, Queen Elizabeth gave a heartfelt wedding toast, claiming that she was, quote,
"proud" to see her son married to the love of his life.
They might have married sooner if not for Prince William and Prince Harry. Royal biographer
Penny Junor wrote in "The Firm" that Camilla and Charles deliberately waited to tie the
knot until the boys were older. While some sources have painted Camilla's relationship
with Harry and William as strained, according to Junor,
"[W]hen they finally married she was sensitive as a stepmother."
Months after the wedding, Prince Harry expressed his affection for Camilla in a TV interview
with Sky News and said,
"She's a wonderful woman and she's made our father very, very happy, which is the most
important thing. William and I love her to bits."
In addition to being a loving mother and stepmother, Camilla is an affectionate grandmother who
dotes on her grandkids. This includes her step-grandchildren Prince George, Princess
Charlotte, Prince Louis, Archie, and Lilibet, as well as a total of five grandchildren from
her son, Tom, and daughter, Laura.
Camilla enjoys spending quality time with the little ones in the family, revealing in
a video on the Instagram page for her Reading Room that she particularly adores reading
to them.
"I read to my children, and now I read to my grandchildren. I love it."
While Camilla is technically the Princess of Wales, she doesn't use the title out of
respect to Princess Diana. Royal expert Marlene Koenig told Town & Country,
"Camilla was not popular or well liked, [though] this has changed a lot since the marriage
[...] 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."
What she will be called after Prince Charles is crowned king, though, is still a matter
of much speculation. While it was previously announced that Camilla would be called "Princess
consort" when Charles takes the throne, things seem to have changed since then. When asked
in 2010 if Camilla would be called queen, Prince Charles reportedly said,
"That's, well [...] We'll see won't we? That could be."
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