Britain’s King Charles III was formally crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey on May 6. Along with the King was crowned his wife Camilla, in the formal coronation of the Queen Consort.
For the 75-year-old Queen Camilla, this marks the end of a very long road, from public disapproval for “breaking up” the marriage of Charles and Diana, constant comparison in the media between her and the dashing “people’s princess”, to a slow, hard-won acceptance by the royal family and the people.
For long, it was believed that Camilla would never be queen, and her title after Charles’s accession would be princess consort. After her marriage to the heir of the throne, Camilla was not given the title of “Princess of Wales”, because it was so strongly attached with Diana. It was only in February this year that Queen Elizabeth made public her “sincere wish” that Camilla be known as Queen Consort.
Who is Camilla, ‘the third person in a marriage’ to now the Queen of England?
Childhood
Camilla Rosemary Shand was born in great wealth to Major Bruce Middleton Hope Shand and the Hon Rosalind Maud Shand (nee Cubitt) on July 17, 1947. Her father was a military officer-turned wine merchant and her mother was the daughter of the 3rd Baron Ashcombe. Famously, her maternal great-grandmother was Alice Keppel, the mistress of Edward VII, Charles’s great great grandfather.
Camilla’s maternal great-grandmother was Alice Keppel, the mistress and confidante of Edward VII, Charles’s great great grandfather. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
After her schooling, Camilla attended a Swiss finishing school and made her debut in London’s upper class society in the 1960s. Charles and Camilla first met in 1970, and fell for each other thanks to shared interests in hunting and outdoor activities, and a similar sense of humour.
‘Three of us in this marriage’
However, Charles went away to join the Royal Navy, and in 1973, Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, a military officer, with whom she has a son and a daughter. It is said that the royal family was against the Charles-Camilla match, because, for all her wealth, Camilla was a commoner, and her reputation was not “chaste enough” to marry the heir to the throne.
In 1981, Charles married the beautiful Diana, who belonged to one of the oldest aristocratic families of England. However, Diana reportedly learnt of the intimacies between Charles and Camilla just days before her wedding.
The Wales’s marriage had a very public breakdown gradually.
Britain’s Prince Charles and his bride Diana, Princess of Wales, are shown on their wedding day on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London, 1981. (AP Photo)
In 1993, a purported conversation between Charles and Camilla from 1989 was leaked. The leaking of the explicit conversation was dubbed “Camillagate” by the British media.
In 1995, Diana famously said in an interview about her marriage, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
Camilla at this time was constantly vilified, her appearance and dressing compared, to her disadvantage, to the charismatic and popular Diana. She later said about this period, ““I couldn’t really go anywhere…it was horrid. It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through it.”
The scrutiny also affected her children, and her son Tom Parker Bowles said in The Times newspaper in 2017, “There is nothing anyone could say about our family that would offend us any more… My mother is bullet-proof.”
In 1995, Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles were divorced. In 1996, Charles and Diana were divorced. In the same year, Andrew married Rosemary Alice Pitman.
The royal family then started a careful campaign of getting the British public used to the idea of Charles and Camilla. However, this campaign had to be abandoned after Diana’s death in 1997 and the public outpouring of grief that accompanied it.
It was only in 1999 that Camilla and Charles made their first public appearance, at her sister’s 50th birthday party. The Queen met Camilla for the first time in 2000, at the 60th birthday celebration for the King of Greece at Charles’s residence. Two years before that, the Queen had reportedly declined to attend Charles’s birthday celebration because Camilla would be there.
Marriage
Charles and Camilla finally got married in 2005, 35 years after first meeting each other. The event was a far cry from the “fairytale wedding” of Charles and Diana, as it was a civil union later blessed by the Church. According to media reports, one of the reasons for the marriage was that British MPs had started raising questions about public funds being used for Camilla’s expenses without her having any official status.
While there had been concerns about how the British public would react to the marriage, the couple was generally wished well. From there on, supporting charities, being at Charles’s side and helping Queen Elizabeth in her duties, Camilla saw public opinion turning warm towards her.
According to the UK Royals’ official website, “Since her marriage to The King in 2005, The Queen Consort has become Patron or President of over 90 charities. Her Majesty’s charity work is varied but several themes prevail: health and well-being, promoting literacy, the arts, animal welfare and supporting survivors of rape and sexual assault.”
King Charles and Queen Camilla walk at an official ceremony to mark Dunfermline as a city, in Dunfermline, Scotland, Britain, October 3, 2022. (Photo: Reuters) 
Camilla’s maternal great-grandmother was Alice Keppel, the mistress and confidante of Edward VII, Charles’s great great grandfather. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Britain’s Prince Charles and his bride Diana, Princess of Wales, are shown on their wedding day on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London, 1981. (AP Photo)
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