From “Other Man's Wife” To Nearly The Queen: It Took Camilla 35 Years To Wed Prince Charles

Jul 18, 2019 by apost team

The storied romance and ultimate marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles is hardly the fodder that fairy tales are made of, and despite her right to do so at this time, Camilla has rejected touting her deserved the official title of Princess of Wales.

Although Camilla is married to Prince Charles, Prince of Wales the heir apparent to the British Throne, her official title is Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. This distinctive title is the feminine form of Charles’ highest-ranking subsidiary title. The reasons behind this are unclear. 

How did Camilla come to assume any role in the monarchy at all, and why did it take her so many years to marry the love of her life after purportedly being the other woman?

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One could argue that the couple’s mutual fondness began in the '70s when they formally met, but the duo would not marry until 2005. According to express, the two met at a party hosted by a mutual friend in 1971 and immediately started dating. Their relationship ended somewhere around 1973, however, when Prince Charles went on to serve the Royal Navy and Camilla wed Andrew Parker Bowles. According to the Telegraph, the Prince wrote to Lord Mountbatten that same year about his heartbreak:

 "I suppose the feeling of emptiness will pass eventually."

The Prince eventually meets Diana Spencer in 1977, when she was just 16 years old. They finally got married in 1981.  After five years of marriage, he became a frequent visitor to Camilla’s home. Diana once famously told the BBC in an interview: 

“There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” 

 She divorced Andrew in 1995, and Charles and Diana legally split roughly one year later.

It did not take long for the newly divorced ex-lovers to reunite in the public eye. According to the Insider, Prince Charles immediately starting trying to introduce Camilla to the public eye in 1996. Things became much more complicated, however, when Diana died in a car crash in 1997. 

According to the BBC,  Prince Harry and Prince William did not meet Camilla until 1998; the couple finally made their first public appearance together in 1999 at Camilla's sister's 50th birthday party. The two married in 2005 and have been together ever since.

Do couples deserve happiness even in cases when infidelity prior to marriage is suspected? Encourage your inner circle to read this reminder of Charles and Camilla’s path to happiness to facilitate a healthy discussion about matters of the heart.