King Charles and Queen Camilla's love story is a tale of scandal, affairs, broken hearts, and missed opportunities spanning five decades. If they met today, their relationship would likely be accepted by a much-modernised royal family. While Camilla was the perfect fun-filled antidote to Charles' sensitive side, theirs was deemed an inappropriate match for a future king. Camilla reportedly did not fit the virginal mould, and she did not come from blue blood.
Realising that their dreams of a future were futile, both married and eventually divorced other people. But their love endured, and tomorrow they will be crowned together at the Coronation. Charles and Camilla first met in 1970 at a polo match in Windsor Great Park, introduced by mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz. They hit it off immediately, and Camilla reportedly cracked a saucy joke about her own great-grandmother having an affair with King Edward VII.
According to royal author Penny Junor, Charles was immediately smitten. He loved that she smiled with her eyes and laughed at the same silly things. He also liked that she was natural and easy, not overawed by him. They dated steadily until Charles left to serve with the Royal Navy in the Caribbean for eight months. Knowing they could never marry, they reluctantly called off their romance. By the time Charles returned, Camilla was engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles, and they married in 1973.
By late 1978 or early 1979, the star-crossed lovers are said to have begun an affair, which Andrew Parker Bowles was apparently fully aware of. Junor wrote that Andrew was in no position to complain and wisely did not make a fuss. But their renewed romance did not alter the fact that Charles needed to find a bride of his own, and in 1980 he started dating the late Diana Spencer. Born into the aristocracy and said to have still been a virgin, the 19-year-old was deemed the perfect partner for Charles, then 32, but their union was ill-fated from the outset.
The couple allegedly met just 13 times in six months before he proposed on February 3, 1981. Once engaged, Diana was moved into Buckingham Palace, where she felt isolated. While Charles was on a tour of Australia, Camilla invited Diana for lunch and reportedly grilled her about her plans to hunt. Diana later realised that Camilla saw Charles as her own, and the rivalry would define the early years of the marriage.
