It has been one of the most remarkable royal stories, filled with hard work, heartache and – ultimately – joy.
As Queen Camilla celebrates her 78th birthday today, her journey to the upper echelons of the Royal Family has been far from straightforward.
Indeed, for many years it wasn’t even clear if she would inherit the title of Queen upon Charles’ accession to the throne.
Much of the decades-long public angst directed at Camilla came from the notorious role she played in the breakdown of King Charles‘ marriage to Diana. Then, following the tragic death of the Princess of Wales in August 1997, she faced a further torrent of abuse.
Now, however, Camilla has gone from being reviled by some members of the public to being seen as a hard-working and much-loved member of the Firm.
Camilla Shand was born on July 17, 1947 to British Army officer Major Bruce Shand and Rosalind Shand whose father was Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe.
It wouldn’t be until the late 1960s that Camilla would meet her first husband – Guards Officer Andrew Parker Bowles – but before they married the couple found themselves in one of the most bizarre royal love triangles.
Camilla and Andrew broke up in 1970. That same year Princess Anne had a brief fling with Andrew.
A year later, Charles entered the picture. He and Camilla immediately hit it off and a young romance began to blossom.
King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla in May 2024. Today is Camilla’s 78th birthday
Camilla during King Charles III’s coronation. Her journey to the upper echelons of the Royal Family was far from straightforward and for many years it wasn’t clear if she would be given the title of Queen upon Charles’ accession to the throne
However, royal biographer Penny Junor has previously claimed that the then-24-year-old Camilla only struck up the relationship because of Anne and Andrew’s relationship.
Ms Junor claimed that Camilla planned to teach her ‘cheating boyfriend a lesson’. Nevertheless – despite the circumstances that might have brought them together – Charles and Camilla continued to grow closer with the future King even going as far to say she might the ‘the one’.
However, Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the family were not so enthused about Charles’ new-found love, in part due to Camilla’s on-again-off-again relationship with Andrew which they feared could cause issues for the heir to the throne.
The Queen Mother organised a secret meeting with both the Shand and Parker Bowles families where a wedding date was swiftly agreed. The couple married in 1973.
Charles and Camilla remained close friends throughout the rest of the 1970s and they were frequently spotted at polo matches together. They then rekindled their relationship in 1980 with Andrew – who had multiple affairs – reportedly supportive of the relationship.
By 1981 Charles was married to Princess Diana. But it was not a fairytale marriage, with the Princess very aware of his continued affections for his former girlfriend.
The omnipresent Camilla would continue to haunt Diana’s relationship with Charles and the Princess of Wales would go on to declare ‘there were three of us in this marriage’ in a notorious BBC interview with Martin Bashir in 1995.
By 1986, Charles and Camilla’s affair was in full-swing once again and Diana had embarked on her own relationship with former army major James Hewitt.
Camilla and her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles on their wedding day in July 1972
Charles and Camilla (pictured in 1972) remained close friends throughout the 1970s and they were frequently spotted at polo matches together
Diana and Camilla in 1980.The omnipresent Camilla would continue to haunt Diana’s marriage to Charles until their separation
Diana and Charles separated in 1992 the same year her authorised biography – Diana: Her True Story – was published. It contained the first public mention of the affair between Charles and Camilla.
It would be another year before the press received undeniable proof of the affair following the ‘tampongate’ scandal, which saw transcripts of an intimate phone conversation between the couple from four years earlier made public.
The six-minute call was supposedly taped by an amateur radio enthusiast who claimed to have stumbled across Charles and Camilla’s conversation while moving between audio channels, and sold the recording to a tabloid.
During the call, the prince spoke of wishing to be close to Camilla in intimate terms – and referred to being reincarnated as a tampon.
The transcript, which was also known as ‘Camillagate’, was so damning that after reading it Diana reportedly declared ‘game, set and match’.
It was the fact that Camilla was seen as the usurper of the much-beloved Princess Diana which led the public to dislike her so much.
Journalist Tina Brown wrote: ‘And the press went after her with such viciousness. I mean, the really appalling sexist comments about Camilla – I mean, they used to call her, you know, old bag, old trout.’
Camilla in 1992, that same year Diana’s authorised biography – Diana: Her True Story – was published. It contained the first public mention of the affair between Charles and Camilla
The future Queen smoking a cigarette on horseback
Daily Mail coverage of ‘Camillagate’ in January 1992
She added that Camilla would sign her letters to Charles ‘your devoted old bag’, as she been been labelled as such so often.
Once Camilla and Andrew had divorced in 1995 and and with the finalisation of Charles and Diana’s own divorce a year later the couple were free to start dating privately, with Charles hosting a lavish party for Camilla’s 50th at Highgrove.
The tragic death of Princess Diana in August 1997 and outpouring of grief from the public which followed meant Charles had to pause his efforts to rehabilitate her image.
Charles he then resumed a large-scale PR campaign with Mark Bolland at the helm.
During the spin doctor’s reign in the late 1990s and early 2000s he performed something of a miracle, taking Charles’s own popularity rating from 20 per cent after Diana’s death to 75 per cent.
Bolland also orchestrated the media coverage of the prince’s first photographed public appearance with Camilla at the Ritz Hotel in January 1999 – dubbed ‘Operation Ritz’.
But Charles also had to get the Royal Family on his side.
This started with Prince Harry and Prince William, who met Camilla for the first time in 1998 at Highgrove.
Camilla and her first husband Andrew in 1995, the same year the couple divorced
Charles and Camilla on their first public outing together in 1998
During the 1990s Charles and Camilla embarked on an ambitious PR campaign to rehabilitate Camilla’s public image
Harry recalled the meeting in his 2023 memoir ‘Spare’ Harry where he and William reportedly promised Charles they would welcome Camilla into the family.
All they asked of the then-Prince of Wales was to not marry Camilla.
Harry claimed this was because the marriage would ’cause controversy’.
He said: ‘It would incite the press. It would make the whole country, the whole world, talk about Mummy, compare Mummy and Camilla, and nobody wanted that. Least of all Camilla.’
The King did not answer but Harry said Camilla did when she ‘began the long game, a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the Crown’.
Harry says that details from Camilla and William’s meetings were later leaked to the press. He alleges they came from Camilla.
Harry was far from the only obstacle Charles and Camilla faced in the dramatic history of their relationship.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was one such hurdle. She reportedly described Camilla as ‘that wicked woman’ on one occasion.
Charles and Camilla’s wedding in April 2005
Her support for their marriage was crucial so that Charles was not removed from the line of succession.
According to Tom Bower’s book Rebel Prince in 1998, around the same time Harry and William met Camilla, Charles spoke to his mother about about welcoming Camilla into the family, which the Queen was not happy about.
Bower wrote that the Queen said she ‘would not condone his adultery, nor forgive Camilla for not leaving Charles alone to allow his marriage to recover’.
By 2000, the Queen indicated her tacit approval of their relationship when she attended a lunch with the pair.
With the late Queen’s approval they married in 2005 but it was far a from conventional affair.
The day was broken up into two sections – with Charles and Camilla taking part in a civil ceremony at Windsor’s Guildhall, where they were legally married, before they travelled to St George’s Chapel for their blessing from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Camilla also eschewed the Princess of Wales title out of respect for her husband’s late former wife Diana and was known by the rather less grand title of the Duchess of Cornwall instead.
One final hurdle Camilla faced was what her title would be once Charles became King.
Camilla at the state opening of Parliament in 2024. Queen Camilla is now an integral and accepted part of the Royal Family
Palace guidance said Camilla would only ever be known as ‘Princess Consort’ – until Queen Elizabeth II ended years of uncertainty over the issue by assuring Camilla’s future status
Palace guidance said she would only ever be known as ‘Princess Consort’ – until Queen Elizabeth II ended years of uncertainty over the issue by assuring Camilla’s future status in an historic Platinum Jubilee statement.
In her surprise announcement in February 2022, Her late Majesty declared it was her ‘sincere wish’ for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged upon Charles becoming King.
Since Charles became King, following the death of his mother in September 8 2022, the now Queen Camilla is one of the most prominent members of the Royal Family.
And since she became Queen her popularity with the public has soared to a high of 55 per cent in September 2022.
In the wake of Charles’s cancer diagnosis in February 2024, Camilla took on more engagements and has only seen her support grow.
And Queen Camilla is now an integral and accepted part of the Royal Family.
