Although Queen Camilla didn’t officially become a part of the royal family until 2005, the former Parker Bowles had a place in the spotlight years before. Her affair with then-Prince Charles while he was married to Princess Diana made her the No.1 hated person in the UK among royal fans. Despite marrying Charles years later, she had to fight to regain their trust–and today, we see the result of it.
While her husband and step-daughter-in-law, Kate Middleton, undergoes cancer treatment, Camilla has stepped up and become a crucial member of the royal family. She’s been praised by both royal fans and experts, and polls show that people’s opinions of her have changed from a year ago.
While much has been written about Camilla, her affair with Charles, and the aftermath, her life pre-royal has been unknown. A while ago, a former colleague of the now-queen stepped forward, revealing how she got fired because of a rowdy night partying.
King Charles and Camilla’s relationship goes back decades. Their love story can be traced back to 1972, when they first met at a polo match.
In the book Charles and Camilla Portrait of a Love Affair, author Gyles Brandreth claims that Charles and Camilla were introduced by their mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz, the daughter of the Chilean ambassador.
King Charles and Queen Camilla
The couple dated for a while but stopped when Charles left to serve in the Royal Navy. By the time he returned, Camilla was involved and engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.
Bowles and Camilla married in 1973, but Camilla maintained a close and friendly relationship with Charles. Back then, the king had started dating 16-year-old Diana Spencer.
When Diana was introduced to the Bowles couple, Camilla thought the young lady was “sweet and cute” and approved of her. At first, Diana and Camilla got along well, but things soon became uncomfortable.
“I met [Camilla] very early on. I was introduced to the circle, but I was a threat, I was a very young girl, but I was a threat,” Diana explained in the book Diana: In Her Own Words.
According to Prince Charles’ authorized biography, as quoted by Town & Country, Charles and Camilla’s affair started in 1986. Charles was still married to Princess Diana at that point. She found out about it – and confronted Camilla.
Things for Charles and Diana continued as usual, at least from the public’s perspective. But it wasn’t long before the couple’s fairytale life was over.
Prince Charles chats to Camilla Parker-Bowles at a polo match, circa 1972. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
In 1992, the couple announced their separation, though both continued with their official royal duties. Four years later, in August of 1996, they reached a final agreement for the divorce.
King Charles and Camilla’s affair was revealed in ‘Tampongate’
By that stage, things had already reached the public regarding Charles’s relationship with Camilla. And what happened in December 1989 pretty much confirmed that they had been having an affair for years.
Just months after Charles and Diana formally separated, the press published a full transcript of a telephone call between the then-future King and Camilla.
The phone call revealed an intimate and sexual exchange between the couple, which became known as Tampongate.
The public reaction wasn’t positive. Firstly, Princess Diana was a national icon and loved by all, and the idea of Charles going behind her back and causing her harm didn’t sit well with anyone.
Secondly, the scandal involved the future king – just hearing him say things like “live inside her trousers” was wholly unexpected and considered inappropriate. According to Sally Bedel Smith, author of the biography Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern March, a poll was released shortly after the transcript was published.
Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said that then-Prince Charles had destroyed his reputation, and 42 percent even thought Prince William should become the monarch after Elizabeth.
Thirdly, the phone call that took place in 1989 more than confirmed that Charles had engaged in an affair with Camilla while still married to Diana. It also proved that Camilla had cheated on her husband, Andrew Parker Bowles.
Express Newspapers/Archive Photos
While the press mistreated Camilla, the bond between her and Charles conquered it all. On April 9, 2005, the couple tied the knot in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.
Queen Camilla’s private life before becoming a royal
Later, at the wedding reception, the late Queen Elizabeth gave the newlyweds a toast. However, she had other things in mind as the monarch had popped into another room to catch a horse race.
“I have two important announcements to make. The first is that Hedgehunter has won the Grand National,” the queen said.
“They have overcome Becher’s Brook and The Chair and all kinds of other terrible obstacles. They have come through, and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves,” Queen Elizabeth II continued as she made a comparison with her horses.
Camilla has not always been royalty, and in her younger years, becoming queen might not have been her plan. As mentioned, she was once married before marrying Charles and actually had quite a regular job.
Camilla studied at Dubrells School in Sussex and Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington before finishing school at Institut Britannique in Paris, where she studied English and French Literature.
According to the Mirror, she worked as a secretary at several firms in London’s West End area and later as a receptionist at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in Mayfair.
Gareth Davies/Getty Images
However, the then-future queen had some problems coming to work on time—and that was because she was out having a good time.
Queen Camilla was fired from her job after a night out partying, former colleague reveals
In the book On The Fringe—A Life In Decorating, designer Imogen Taylor, who was a colleague at the interior design firm Colegax and Fowler, where the queen used to work, recalled how a young Camilla came to work late after a night of partying.
The former colleague explained how Camilla was fired – and yelled at by the boss.
In 2016, she told the Sunday Times: “There were lots of debutantes working for us, even Camilla. She worked for us for a moment but got the sack.”
Imogen Taylor, moreover, explained that their boss had quite the temperament.
“He would shout and bellow so the whole building heard every word. The Duchess of Cornwall was one assistant who fell victim to one of tantrums. I think she came in late, having been to a dance,” she recalled.
While a young Camilla was fired, today, that is history. Today, she has become a vital part of the royal family, and her popularity has skyrocketed in the last few months.
Finnbarr Webster – WPA Pool / Getty Images
As Kate is receiving treatment for her cancer and King Charles is just now returning to royal duty, Camilla has taken on a great responsibility for the royal family to uphold their standards of serving the nation.
Queen Camilla praised as a “remarkable asset.”
While Queen Camilla is known not to love life in the spotlight, she has put all her energy towards serving The Crown. For example, she doesn’t like giving speeches, but as King Charles wasn’t there, she did it.
Moreover, royal expert Angela Levin said earlier this year that Camilla has left her “comfort zone” and done all her engagements – which King Charles typically was scheduled to do – with “grace.”
Some weeks ago, Camilla was the sole representative of the royal family, attending the Easter service at Worchester Cathedral while Charles continued his cancer treatment.
In a segment on GB News America, royal expert and former correspondent Charles Rae praised the queen for supporting King Charles and Kate Middleton in this troublesome time, calling her a “remarkable asset.”
Rae explained that Queen Camilla has “proven herself” in recent years, not least because of how she was treated after Princess Diana’s death in 1997.
He added that Camilla is “one of the best things to happen to the Royal Family” in a “good number of years.”
“There’s no question about it, she stepped into the breach. She’s got everything on her shoulders with what’s going on, and she’s taking on even more work,” royal expert Charles Rae said.
“Everywhere she goes, she has got a cheery smile on and a happy face. She says the right things. She has proved to be a remarkable asset to the Royal Family, given the allegations that at one time she had bread rolls thrown at her in a supermarket car park.”
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Rae concluded, “I remember her when she was the most hated woman in Britain. I’ve met her several times and she’s charming, she’s witty, she’s really nice to chat to, and certainly when she’s chatting to people, she has done her homework as to who she’s chatting to.”
“They are always laughing and chatting”
Overall, Queen Camilla has become a significant person for the royal family in terms of engagements and duties, as well as for Charles.
Speaking with Vanity Fair in 2018, a longtime royal correspondent said she has “made a massive difference” in Charles.
“He’s much more relaxed now. They are always laughing and chatting, they have great affection and humor between them;” the source said.
Moreover, Daily Mail’s royal correspondent, Rebecca English, told Town & Country Magazine there was a “very different situation” when Camilla joined the royal family and the present.
“They decided the way to do it wasn’t to ‘sell her’. They concluded that the best way to move things forward was to just let her be herself and let people see for themselves what she is actually really like.”
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