35 years waiting for happiness: Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Camilla and Prince Charles have been waiting for their happiness for more than three decades, and no one suspected that this long-term romance would end in marriage. Many knew about the love triangle, but they pretended that nothing was happening - very well each of its participants played their role. Most likely, Camilla would have remained in the role of his mistress, but fate had other plans. The day of death of Princess Diana was the beginning of a new stage in the life of Charles and his longtime lover.

Acquaintance of Camilla and Prince Charles

The couple met in 1972 at a party in the Annabelles club. They were brought together by Lucia Santa Cruz, the daughter of the Chilean ambassador to Great Britain and the ex-girlfriend of Charles. She quickly got bored with Charles, and she handed him over to her friend Camilla Shand, who had just parted ways with Andrew Parker-Bowles (their relationship with the officer lasted 7 years). This nodding acquaintance quickly grew into a passionate relationship. It was rumored that once Camilla invited Charles to repeat the fate of their ancestors: her great-grandmother Alice Keppel was for a long time the mistress of Edward VIII, Charles's great-grandfather.

However, Camilla had no chance of becoming the wife of the heir to the British throne, and she understood this perfectly. She was not from a noble family - Camilla's father was an ordinary wine merchant. And besides, the girl did not differ in modesty and well-behaved - she smoked, drank and there were always crowds of men around her. If Charles had entered into such a marriage, he would have immediately lost his right to the throne.

2. The marriage of the heir to the throne and the marriage of his beloved

A year after meeting Charles, Camilla married her longtime lover Andrew Parker-Bowles. Soon the couple has a son. It was rumored that this was Charles's child. The prince becomes a regular guest at the house of the couple. Andrew did not interfere with this, knowing full well that the heir to the throne is not indifferent to his wife and these feelings are mutual. In 1979, Camilla had a daughter, and soon the woman's romance with Charles was resumed. However, Andrew himself constantly had affairs with other women, and his wife’s connection on the side did not particularly bother him.

Queen Elizabeth II, realizing that Charles fell under the influence of Camilla, decided to marry him. The crown prince was already 32 years old, and there were no heirs, and this fact was very worried about the royal family. It was very difficult to choose a candidate, because the sexual revolution, which lasted in the 60s and 70s, did not pass without a trace. Finding a virgin, which should be a princess, was not easy, even in high society. Elizabeth II picked up an excellent option for her son - Diana Spencer, a 19-year-old beauty who has long been in love with the heir.

The future princess had heard a lot about the love of Charles and Camilla, but she naively believed that she would be able to win the heart of the heir to the throne, and their family life would be like a fairy tale. Camilla, on the other hand, was sure that the future wife of her lover, a young and inexperienced fool, could not interfere with their love.

In the summer of 1981, Charles and Diana got married. But this did not prevent the heir to the British throne a couple of days before his own wedding to give his mistress a gift - a bracelet with the initials G and F (these are the first letters of the conspiratorial names of lovers - Gladys and Fred). Rumor has it that both Diana and Charles offered to end the engagement, but the royal family insisted on the marriage.

3. Charles's family life

Despite the youth and beauty of Princess Diana, she failed to win the heart of the prince. She was admired by the subjects of the British Queen, the whole world loved her, but only her husband was completely indifferent to her. Even when Diana gave the royal family two heirs, her family life did not work out. The rival was always somewhere nearby. Camilla attended Charles and Diana's engagement. True, her name was deleted from the list of those invited to the wedding breakfast at the palace. And she decided to take revenge. When the couple went on their honeymoon, Camilla planted her photographs on her lover, which his wife discovered.

Diana often found her husband talking with Camilla, and the mistress repeatedly made it clear to her legal wife that she was aware of all, even the most intimate details of the royal couple's family life. In the late 1980s, Diana allows herself a connection on the side. Her marriage to Charles becomes a mere formality, but the war between women continues. In the early 1990s, the book “Diana. True story , in which, according to the princess, the relationship between Charles and Camilla was described throughout the royal family life. In 1992, it became known that Diana and Charles were no longer together, and in 1996 their marriage was officially terminated.

Camilla and Charles

Not long after the death of Princess Diana in 1997, Charles begins to take Camilla with him to official receptions as part of his retinue. He probably wanted the public to get used to it and prepare public opinion. The prince fully provided for his beloved, and in 2003 the topic of legal marriage was first raised. In 2005, Elizabeth II blessed Charles and Camilla, and the wedding took place. After the marriage, the woman received all the titles that Diana had. But either as a sign of respect for the deceased, or for some other reason, Camilla does not use the title "Princess of Wales".

Time passed, and people came to terms with the new wife of Prince Charles. Unlike Diana, Camilla keeps aloof from her husband in public, tries not to attract attention to herself, highlighting her husband.

It would seem that the 35-year history of waiting ended with a happy ending if not for one thing. Recently, the English media raised a stir - after 10 years of marriage, the Duchess of Cornwall is demanding a divorce from Charles and $ 360 million in compensation. Otherwise, Camilla threatens to pull out all the skeletons from the cabinets of Buckingham Palace into the light of day. Will the most tumultuous romance in the history of the British monarchy really end so ingloriously?

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