Nearly five decades have passed since Prince Charles and Camilla met, and while their relationship has been riddled with controversy, it has ultimately stood the test of time.
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Having weathered countless scandals over the years, now, on the eve of their 15th wedding anniversary, the once star-crossed lovers are happier than ever.
There are varying accounts of when Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son, Prince Charles, first met the young Camilla Shand. Some claim it was at a polo match in 1971, while others allege it was through a mutual friend. Regardless of the circumstances, Charles and Camilla hit it off instantly, dating for the majority of 1972. Charles introduced Camilla to his family, they holidayed at his uncle Lord Mountbatten’s Hampshire estate, and they frequented high-profile events across London.
But by the time Charles left for the West Indies with the Royal Navy in 1973, things had ended. While the details of their break-up remain unknown, it’s speculated that the Queen deemed Camilla an unsuitable match for the future king of England in spite of her privileged background (Camilla’s father was a British Army major and her mother was the daughter of a baron).
Within a few months, Camilla had rekindled her relationship with her former boyfriend Andrew Parker Bowles. They married on July 4, 1973, and went on to have two children, Tom in 1974, and Laura in 1978.
Charles, having found a more ‘appropriate’ bride, married Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981. Charles and Diana had their children, Prince William in 1982, and Prince Harry in 1984, and from the outside, everything looked rosy.
However, the next chapter of their lives was to be plagued by turmoil.
In November 1992, intimate, explicit phone conversations between Charles and Camilla were leaked to tabloids, and in 1994, in a television interview, Charles admitted to having begun an affair with Camilla back in 1986. They’d never really fallen out of love.
Appalled by the public humiliation, the Queen ordered Diana and Charles’ divorce in 1996. By now, Camilla’s marriage had also ended, so the couple were finally able to take their relationship public.
When Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997, the tragedy and its repercussions tainted a period that should have been Charles and Camilla’s most blissful. Instead, Camilla received a hostile public reception, compared with Diana and hounded by the paparazzi at every turn. In 2017, Camilla told the Mail on Sunday it was “a deeply unpleasant time [that] I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through.”
However, they persevered– Charles and Camilla’s love, loyalty and compatibility eventually becoming obvious to everyone around them.
In 2005, Charles, then 56, and Camilla, 57, tied the knot at Windsor Guildhall. Over the 15 years that have since followed, Camilla has cemented her status as a valued member of the royal family, travelling the world undertaking royal commitments by Charles’ side – always smiling, always supportive.
In an interview with CNN in 2015, Charles said of Camilla, “It’s always marvellous to have somebody who, you know, you feel understands and wants to encourage.”
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