After years of being portrayed as the most despised woman in Britain, Camilla, King Charles’ second wife, was proclaimed queen on Saturday, concluding a spectacular turnaround in public acceptance few could have predicted. Camilla received the brunt of media animosity after Charles’ divorced first wife, the popular, gorgeous Princess Diana, died in a car collision in Paris in 1997. Some said the couple could never marry.
But they married eight years later, and since then she has grown to be acknowledged as a crucial part of the royal family, someone on whom the new king significantly relies, and the nation’s Queen Camilla, albeit grudgingly by some. “She is his sort of soul mate,” said Robert Hardman, a long-time royal correspondent and author of ‘Queen of Our Times’, pointing out she had been married to Charles longer than Diana. “They’re a team. And you’ve got to be a team.”
The couple dated for a while, and Charles had considered marriage but felt he was too young
Camilla Shand was born in 1947 into a rich family – her father was an army major and wine trader who married an aristocracy – and moved into social circles that brought her into contact with Charles, whom she met in the early 1970s on a windswept polo pitch. The couple dated for a while, and Charles had considered marriage but felt he was too young. Camilla married Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, a cavalry commander, while he was devoted to his naval career. Tom and Laura were the couple’s two children. In 1995, they divorced.
In 1981, Charles married Diana, just 20, in a wedding that captivated not only Britain but the entire world. The relationship soured when they had two children, William and Harry, and they split in 1996 after he resumed his connection with his old lover. In 1993, a transcript of a secretly taped private discussion containing incredibly sensitive details was released in newspapers, shocking the public.
“I’d suffer anything for you. That’s love. That’s the strength of love,” Camilla told Charles in the secretly recorded telephone conversation publicised in 1993. In a TV interview the following year, Charles admitted he had resumed their affair, but said it was only after his marriage had irretrievably broken down. “There were three of us in this marriage – so it was a bit crowded,” Diana, who dubbed Camilla “the Rottweiler”, famously remarked in her own TV interview in 1995.
While Diana brought glamour to the stuffy House of Windsor with her glittering gowns, many Britons could not understand why Charles would prefer the country-loving Camilla, usually pictured wearing a scarf and green waterproof riding coat. “I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind leaving you for Camilla,” Prince Philip, Charles’ father and the late Queen Elizabeth’s husband, said in a letter to Diana.
Camilla was singled out for scathing criticism following Diana’s death, amid a public outpouring of grief and outrage
Camilla was singled out for scathing criticism following Diana’s death, amid a public outpouring of grief and outrage. However, in future years, royal advisers entrusted with repairing the royal family’s ruined reputation gradually began to integrate Camilla into a more prominent position. From being able to appear in public together, to marriage and Queen Elizabeth’s blessing last year, to Camilla assuming the title of Queen Consort, their success is complete. Public relations specialists believe it was the result of a lot of hard work, but Camilla’s aides claim it was really due to her personality and amazing sense of humour.
“She is resilient, she was brought up with this extraordinary sense of duty where you got on with it, don’t whinge, put your best face on and keep going, and it has stood her in very good stead,” Fiona Shelburne, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, a close confidante of Camilla, now 75, told the Sunday Times last month.
Polls show that she is not popular with the general public
Her recuperation, however, has come at a cost. In his memoir, Prince Harry accused his stepmother of leaking falsehoods about him to the press in order to boost her own profile, and that he and his brother had implored their father not to marry her. Polls show that she is not popular with the general public. According to a YouGov poll released this week, 48% of people like her, while 39% dislike her, making her one of the least popular members of the royal family. According to other polls, just a handful of people thought she should be Queen Camilla.
“I think Diana … will be hurling thunderbolts on coronation day, that’s for sure,” royal author Tina Brown told Reuters. “I mean the idea of a crown being placed upon the head of her deadliest rival, Camilla, I think would have given her absolute heartburn.”
