One of the greatest assets that Queen Camilla has is that she has never lost the common touch. Even as a young woman she was never fazed by the royal family, and this is something that first made her attractive to the young Charles. Born on July 17, 1947 in London, she grew up in rural Sussex and was educated at Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington, before finishing schools in Switzerland and France.
Charles first met the fun, confident Camilla on Windsor Great Park polo field in 1970 when he had just left Cambridge, a year before he joined the Royal Navy. Legend has it that she was the one to remind him of a long-standing liaison between her great-grandmother Alice Keppel and King Edward VII.
“My great-grandmother was your great-great grandfather’s mistress — so how about it?” she is supposed to have asked Charles.
They first started dating after she and her boyfriend, Andrew Parker Bowles, had split for the first time. But that early love affair — one that was so passionate and real for Charles — ended when Camilla returned to the dashing cavalry officer Parker Bowles and married him in 1973.
The wedding happened while Charles was at sea serving in the Royal Navy in the Caribbean. When he discovered that she was married, he was left with “a feeling of emptiness” that was exacerbated by the fact that his sister Princess Anne — his trusted and loyal confidante — had also wed her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips.
Camilla enjoyed a period of happy marriage and the couple had two children, Tom and Laura. Camilla even asked Charles to be her son’s godfather, a role he happily accepted.
But the Parker Bowles’s marriage hit troubled times and the couple began to lead separate lives. She sought solace with Charles again and their intimacy resumed. However, the pressure was on Charles as heir apparent to Queen Elizabeth II to settle down and produce the so-called “heir and a spare”.
He had stated publicly that he thought 30 was a good age to marry and the tabloid press was on the case for him to settle down.
His problem was he was a man who was in love with a married woman — who in those days would have been unacceptable as a royal bride.
Charles has since told close friends that has “caught between the devil and the deep blue sea” and he agonised over finding the right woman to share his life and be his future Queen.
As Camilla was deemed unsuitable for anything other than to be his mistress, he went out searching for a wife, marrying the 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Even when he announced his engagement to Diana five months earlier he couldn’t state he was “in love”.
When asked by an ITN reporter if they were in love, Diana shot back: “Of course.” Charles could only reply: “Whatever ‘in love’ means.” Although she didn’t show it, his comment sparked shock in Diana, who was already suspicious of his close relationship with Camilla.
The failed marriage, divorce and tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997 has been well documented. In his grief Charles turned to the one loyal woman he relied on and trusted implicitly.
Both of his sons needed convincing of his relationship with Camilla, but they were happy he had found love again and that at last their restless father seemed content.
Charles and Camilla’s first public appearance together was outside the Ritz hotel in 1999, where a mass of waiting photographers had been tipped off.
After the Evening Standard revealed the plans for the couple to marry in 2005, the palace fudged the issue of her future title, and said when the time came Camilla would be known as the Princess Consort — not as Queen.
The culmination of the romance was a marriage between the couple, who wed in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on April 9, 2005.
Over time Camilla worked tirelessly, supporting the late Queen and her husband in a role she came to late in life. After initially being cast as the “third person” in Charles and Diana’s marriage, her public image has been transformed. During the Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth declared her wish for Camilla to be known as Queen Consort on Charles’s accession.
But it seems she will be known as Queen Camilla following the Coronation after Buckingham Palace used the title for the first time on the official invitation.
I have covered the royal family for more than 30 years and, since she married our new King, I have got to know Camilla. Like Prince Philip was to the Queen, she has become the monarch’s strength and stay. She is a patron or supporter of a number of literacy charities, speaks out in support of victims of domestic violence and champions several animal welfare organisations.
I like her. She is good with people and down to earth.
When I reported on a royal visit last year to my home town of Southend-on-Sea when it became a city, she made sure to pop into a fish and chip restaurant — and even ordered a wally (a pickled gherkin).
She has put in a good shift for the “Firm” and when she is crowned alongside her King it will be the culmination of an incredible journey.
One thing is for sure, the “Lady Boss” won’t let it go to her head and she will keep her feet firmly on the ground.
