The late Princess Diana was once described by Camilla, the current wife of the new British King Charles III, as a “Rottweiler”, a type of dog. Camilla may have never been loved by the people, but she is now the consort of the king, bearing a title that few would have imagined 25 years ago.
When the beloved, glamorous Princess Diana and first wife of Charles died at the age of 36 in a car crash in Paris in 1997, Camilla was portrayed by the media as Britain’s most hated woman, a woman who would never have married Charles, let alone become a queen.
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. Diana blamed Camilla, often portrayed as quiet and shabby-looking, for ruining her marriage, and Camilla, now 75, has always been compared With Charles’ glamorous first wife.
But Charles and Camilla married in 2005, and since then she has been recognized, albeit reluctantly by some, as a key member of the royal family, whose good influence on her husband has helped him deal with his royal role.
“I would suffer anything for you,” Camilla told Charles in a secretly taped telephone conversation published in 1993. “This is love. This is the power of love.”
Any lingering doubts about her future status were allayed on the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne, in February of this year, when Elizabeth gave her blessing to Camilla to become consort when Charles succeeded her on the throne. The Queen said at the time that she was doing so “with a sincere desire”.
“As we have endeavored together to serve and support Her Majesty the Queen and our community, my dear wife has been my loyal support all along,” Charles said at the time.
rich family
Born in 1947 to a wealthy family – her father was a major and wine merchant who married an aristocrat – Camilla Shand was raised on a country farm and educated in London before attending Mont Vertel School in Switzerland and then the British Institute in France. She became involved in social circles that brought her into contact with Charles, whom she met at the polo field in the early 1970s.
“His world was turned upside down and I don’t think he ever recovered from that,” said Christopher Wilson, author of a book about the couple’s relationship.
Anecdotally, in the early days, Camilla alerted Charles that her great-grandmother, Alice Cable, had been a long-time mistress of the former Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII. Then she apparently said, “What do you think of that?”
The two dated for some time and biographer Jonathan Dimbleby said Charles was considering marriage at the time, but felt he was too young to take such a big step.
When he joined the Royal Navy, Camilla married a cavalry officer, Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles. They had two children, Tom and Laura. They divorced in 1995.
Three in this one marriage
In 1981, Charles married Diana when she was 20 in a wedding that captivated not only Britain but the world. However, despite having two children, William and Harry, the relationship worsened after a few years and the prince rekindled his romance with his former lover.
The secrets of their relationship were revealed to a shocked public in 1993 when a transcript of a secretly taped private conversation was published in the newspapers, with intimate details such as the prince saying he wished to live inside her pants.
“Your great achievement is to love me,” he said. She replied, “My love, this is very easy.”
In a popular television interview the following year, Charles admitted that he revived their relationship less than six years after his marriage to Diana, but said it only happened after their marriage irreversibly collapsed.
However, Diana called Camilla a “Rottweiler” and blamed her for the breakup. As her relationship with Charles fell apart, she said in a 1995 TV interview, “We were three in this marriage – so it was a bit crowded.”
With Diana shimmering Windsor Castle, many Britons couldn’t fathom why Charles favored Camilla, who is often seen wearing a green sash and raincoat.
Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, said in a letter to Diana: “Charles was wrong to risk everything with Camilla for a man of his position. I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind would leave you for Camilla.”
Those close to Charles say Camilla provided him with an outlet from his strict royal duties and upbringing at the palace, as no one else had.
After his marriage to Diana fell apart, he was said to have bought Camilla a diamond ring and a horse and sent her daily bouquets of red roses.
“There was no doubt that they loved one another: in Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Prince found warmth, understanding and stability, things he so longed for and could not find with anyone else,” Dimbleby wrote in the authoritative autobiography. “Their relationship…was later portrayed as a mere romantic one. However, for the Prince, it was a vital source of strength for a man who was so saddened by the failure that he always blamed himself.”
Image reconstruction
After Diana’s death, aides to the royal family took on the task of restoring an image of the family that had been shaken for years by negative media stories of infidelity. Gradually, the family’s assistants began the task of integrating Camilla into more public life. The duo’s first public appearance together came at Camilla’s sister’s birthday party at the Ritz Hotel in London in 1999 and by 2005 they were able to get married.
In the years that followed, criticism in the press faded completely as she took on her place in the family, and royal watchers say her sense of humor helped win over those who met her.
“They seemed to be a very happy couple in each other’s company,” Simon Lewis, the Queen’s communications secretary from 1998 to 2001, told Archyde.com. “That time I was at the palace, there was all speculation about their relationship, what was going to happen – it was all dealt with, it was all over and I think (they are) actually a very happy couple.”
When the couple’s royal car got caught in the throes of violence in London in 2010 after student protests, Camilla was reportedly stabbed with a stick through an open window and newspapers praised her sobriety when she later joked, “There’s a first time for everything.”
In 2013, she joined her husband at the official opening of Parliament, an important occasion, when she sat next to Charles, the Queen and Prince Philip wearing a tiara belonging to the Queen Mother.
Public relations experts say it was the result of a lot of hard work and caution by the prince’s publicity team, but aides said it was mainly down to Camilla’s personality.
“I think in the case of the Duchess, it is simply that people should have known her better and loved what they saw and heard about her,” a former senior aide to the palace told Archyde.com. “It’s not an overt PR campaign to make it look good,” he added. “It’s doing its part really well.”
In response to a question about how Camila handled her role, Charles told CNN in 2015 “You can imagine it was a real challenge, but I think she’s been great in the way she’s approached these things.”
The tabloids that were once so critical of her are now lavishly praised.
Not the evil stepmother
In its February 2022 editorial, the Daily Mail wrote: “No one is claiming it would have been easy for the Duchess of Cornwall to succeed Diana. But with dignity, easy humor and obvious sympathy, she rose to the challenge. She is, quite simply, a source of support for Charles.”
The same newspaper, nearly 17 years ago the day before Charles and Camilla’s engagement was announced, said, “So is the public now in a mood to tolerate the bad way Diana was treated?…the mistake is to allow Camilla to be known as Her Royal Highness – the title The same one who was mercilessly stripped of Diana after her divorce.
But Camila has never won widespread public love.
According to a regular poll conducted by YouGov in May 2022, only 20 percent of those polled believed that she should be a queen, while 39 percent thought she should receive the title of consort of the emir. However, after the Queen supported her in becoming the King’s consort, a poll conducted by the Daily Mail showed that 55 percent supported the move against 28 percent opposed.
And while many Britons did not tolerate any role it played in the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage, Prince Harry indicated that this was not the case with him and his older brother. “To be honest with you, she has always been very close to me and William,” Harry said in an interview marking his 21st birthday in 2005. “She’s not the bad stepmother.”