Camilla’s transformation from royal mistress and ‘wicked woman’ to Queen
Before she was queen, Camilla was vilified in the media for being Charles’ mistress…
Camilla’s transformation from a royal mistress to the queen consort of Britain resembles that of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Before she was crowned alongside husband King Charles she was the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales’ mistress and wife to Andrew Parker Bowles. A long-term affair with the future king became Buckingham Palace’s best-kept secret – until it wasn’t.
The first confirmation Charles had been back with his ex-girlfriend behind Princess Diana’s back sent his and Camilla’s popularity plummeting with members of the public. However, as time heals old wounds, it seems to have done the trick with opinions as well.
We take a look at how Camilla‘s popularity has changed over the decades, and how she transformed herself from just a royal mistress to queen.
The future Queen Camilla met King Charles in 1971 (Credit: Cover Images)
Charles and Camilla’s early relationship
The future king and queen felt sparks the first time they met in 1971, after being introduced by a mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz. She reportedly joked about Charles and Camilla being somewhat related, telling them to be ‘careful’.
However, their instant attraction was complicated by Camilla’s on-and-off relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles. It’d be the following year when they first became romantically involved. Camilla – Shand – was seen at his polo matches in Windsor.
By 1973, Charles is departing on a six-month tour with the royal navy, and they appear to part ways. A month later, she announces her engagement to Andrew in the newspaper, and the heir to the throne was distraught. He wrote to her, pleading with her to not marry Andrew Parker Bowles, but it didn’t work.
Katie Nicholl wrote for Vanity Fair: “He wrote to Camilla and pleaded with her to reconsider, but I think by this point, it was just too late.”
Camilla was Charles’ “first real love”, wrote Penny Junor, royal biographer, adding “when you fall first, sometimes you fall hardest.”
The former Duchess of Cornwall said she felt ‘imprisoned’ in her own home (Credit: Cover Images)
Charles, Diana and Camilla – ‘There were three of us’
Prince Charles and Princess Diana first meet in 1977, while he was dating her older sister Sarah. Yet, him and Lady Diana Spencer didn’t become romantic themselves until three years later. In 1981, he proposes and they tie the knot at St Paul’s Cathedral six months later.
Camilla attending the wedding, and Diana claims he wore cuff links she gave him on their honeymoon.
Charles and Camilla’s affair began in 1986, according to Jonathan Dimbleby, who penned the king’s authorised biography. They kept seeing each other for 10 years, before Diana and Charles finally divorced in 1996 – a year before the former Princess of Wales’ death.
In 1992, Andrew Morton publishes Diana: Her True Story, where he reveals future Queen Camilla has been Charles’ mistress for several years. The following year, newspapers leaked a racy telephone transcript between Charles and Camilla from 1989. The incident is dubbed Camillagate and she became the official ‘other woman’.
It wasn’t until 1994 when the future king admits to the affair on television, while being interviewed by Jonathan Dimbleby. When asked if had been ‘faithful’ to Diana, Charles admitted he had “until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried”.
This caused Camilla to separate from her husband Andrew in 1995, before Diana and Charles officially divorce the following year.
Camilla said the media backlash was ‘horrid’ (Credit: Cover Images)
Camilla says media scrutiny was ‘horrid’
The backlash over their affair being plastered all over the newspapers took a toll on the future duchess.
Camilla admitted in a rare interview the media scrutiny was “horrid”.
She says she was imprisoned in her own home after the death of the Princess of Wales, adding: “I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through it.”
As their affair had been out in the open for a couple of years before Diana’s death, they were moving on with their own lives. Charles and Camilla had planned to show they were sticking together after their divorces through her 50th birthday party. However, Diana’s death weeks later in 1997 meant they shied from being seen out publicly.
It doesn’t help that in 2022, Katie Nicholl claimed the late Queen referred to Camilla as that ‘wicked woman’ via Robert Lacey.
He said: “Those damning words were reported in distress by Prince Charles himself.”
Read more: Queen Camilla’s wedding dress ignored tradition but another royal’s outfit broke ‘unwritten rule’
Camilla married Charles in 2005 (Credit: Cover Images)
Making it official
It would be two more years before the couple make their first public appearance. Prince Charles and Camilla attend her sister’s birthday party at the Ritz in London, signifying it is all out in the open. She attends the Queen Mother’s funeral with Charles, and in 2003 moves in with the royal at Clarence House.
The plan to get the public to back Camilla was called ‘Operation PB’ by royal aides, with Charles tasking it to his deputy private secretary Mark Bolland. It was his idea to have the couple leave the Ritz together. It was a plan to turn Camilla from mistress to future queen material.
Penny Junor wrote: “Many people in the Prince’s office thought it was too early for them to be seen together. As one of them says: the sky didn’t fall in. And, thanks to Bolland’s gambit, public opinion started turning round. But that was Mark – he was always pushing things on … he wanted to achieve the goal of getting them married.”
“Next, Camilla started turning up unannounced at public engagements, dinners and events where the media was present. ‘It was quite hard on her, people pointing and whispering, but she coped really, really well,’ said one person close to her. ‘What I noticed early on was the effect she had on the room. She would be sitting at the table, listening to him behave badly, and all she would have to do is look at him and the whole atmosphere would change … It did make him behave a little bit better, because when she wasn’t there, boy, could he kick off!’”
By 2005, they announce their engagement and marry two months later. The late Queen gives her the title of the Duchess of Cornwall – rather than the Princess of Wales. While members of the royal family share they are happy with the news, Prince Harry revealed he and brother William begged their father not to marry Camilla. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh also did not attend their nuptials.
Camilla continues with her work, putting the mistress headlines behind her, keeping her head down and completing royal duties by representing the queen. After 17 years, in 2022, the late queen releases a statement detailing upon her death, Camilla will be known as queen consort. She urges the public to “give [Charles] and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me”.
She added: “And it is my sincere wish that, when that times comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”
Queen Camilla was crowned alongside her husband in May 2023 (Credit: BBC)
Queen’s statement convinced fans Camilla should be given title
Author Robert Lacey explained: “What we have got here [in Camilla], after all the travails, is actually a queen who is much more like his mother than we might ever have expected.
“And one speculates, but the late Queen might have been actually relieved to find someone who could give her son the peace that she herself couldn’t. Because Camilla was a friend to him. She was a mentor. Clearly she plays that very important role.”
The nation, however, was divided over the idea of Camilla becoming queen consort.
Read more: What will really happen to Queen Camilla when Prince William becomes king
The late Queen Elizabeth II said it was her wish that Camilla would become queen consort (Credit: Splashnews.com)
In July 2019, when asked by YouGov if the Duchess of Cornwall should be known as queen if Charles ascended to the throne, 39% responded she should instead be a princess consort, and 28% claimed she shouldn’t have any title at all.
By 2020, only 15% of people agreed she should become queen, and this dropped even further to 13% the following year.
However, after the late queen’s statement in 2022, the British public rallied behind their monarch.
The data shows those supporting Camilla becoming queen rose up to 20%, and the almost third of respondents who believed she should have no title, dropped down to 20% too.
Camilla is the 9th most-liked royal in the UK (Credit: Splashnews.com)
Queen Camilla’s popularity ranking
As it stands, while the late Queen asked the public to treat and support Camilla as they would do King Charles – her popularity doesn’t quite show that.
According to YouGov data, King Charles is the 5th most-liked royal, at 53%, behind Kate Middleton, Prince William, Princess Anne and his sister-in-law Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh. Camilla suffers a brutal blow in the rankings, being rated as the 9th most-liked royal among the British public with only 37%.
The queen consort stands behind Zara Tindall – Anne’s daughter – Prince Edward, and Prince Andrew’s daughter Princess Eugenie.
