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On July 17, the future Queen of Great Britain Camilla will turn 75 years old. For some, she is a “razluchnitsa”, who left Princess Diana no chance for family happiness, for others, she is a loving woman who has suffered her place next to Prince Charles.
The daughter of the now businessman Major Bruce Shand and the Honorable Rosalind Shand was born on 17 July 1947 at King’s College Hospital, London. Formally, her family cannot be called aristocratic, but she was not a “Cinderella” either. Her mother is the daughter of the 3rd Baron Ashtcombe, a noble and wealthy man. In 1939, Rosalind danced at her first ball and the press declared her “debutante of the year”, but the outbreak of war mixed all the cards. She met the son of journalist Philip Shand, a combat veteran released from Nazi captivity, in 1945. They got married, bought a house in Sussex, after which their children Camilla, Annabelle and Mark were born.
The future Duchess first studied at the Sussex co-ed school and then enrolled at Queen’s Gate in South Kensington. She also attended the Mon Fertile High School in Switzerland and studied French literature in Paris. In 1965, she fluttered as a young debutante into the circles of young aristocrats. As anyone who has turned on the television or read the papers in the past half century knows, she was romantically involved with the Prince of Wales before they both started families, and after that too. At the same time, Camilla has two children – Tom and Laura – from her marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles, a British army officer, whom she divorced in 1995. And now she is the grandmother of five grandchildren. But this is not what the public is interested in when it comes to the past and present of the Duchess of Cornwall. Many Britons still cannot forgive her for what Princess Diana, in an interview with the BBC about her divorce from Prince Charles, described:
There were three of us in our marriage, so it was a bit crowded.
Camilla Shand met Andrew Parker-Bowles through his younger brother Simon, who worked for her father. The relationship was not easy – they either converged or parted. In 1970, after another break with Camilla, Andrew began courting the Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne. And Camilla, almost a year later, met the Prince of Wales. They became friends, friendship quickly grew into love, and this was not a secret for their environment. The girl introduced Charles to her parents, the prince introduced his beloved to some members of the royal family. The novel ended unexpectedly: the heir to the throne was sent abroad for six months to serve in the Royal Navy. They say that this was done on purpose to separate him from an unsuitable, as it seemed to his relatives, girl. True, Camilla’s great-great-grandmother Alice Keppel was a long-term lover and confidant of Prince Charles’ great-great-great-grandfather King Edward VII. But this was not enough to become the wife of the heir to the throne.
In those days, the bride of the future king had to have an honorary title, such as Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Earl Spencer. Bad luck in love with royalty and Andrew Parker-Bowles. He was a Catholic, and although his father was a friend of the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, he was given to understand that there was no future for his relationship with Princess Anne. They got back together with Camilla, and soon – in 1973 – an announcement about their wedding appeared in The Times newspaper, which, as the American press wrote, came as a surprise to both of them. According to journalists, the announcement was given by their parents to push Andrew to offer Camilla a hand and heart. This wedding became the social event of the year. Among the 800 guests were the Queen Mother, her youngest daughter Princess Margaret and, of course, the groom’s ex-girlfriend Princess Anne.
But already at the end of the 70s – biographers differ in exact dates – Charles and Camilla were together again, already as friends, and maybe more than friends. In any case, the Prince of Wales became the godfather of the Parker Bowles’ son, Tom. And even having married Diana, he did not stop maintaining relations with his former lover. In 1986, two years after the birth of their youngest son, Harry, Charles began to visit his home in Highgrove more often, a ten-minute drive from Camilla’s. After the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana became public, Lady Dee sent British journalist Andrew Morton, who has been writing about the royal family for many years, a tape on which she recorded her version of events.
The princess talked about being unhappy, feeling betrayed, about suicide attempts, and about two circumstances that I had never heard of before: an eating disorder called bulimia, and a woman named Camilla,” said Morton, in In 1992, he published the book “Diana. Her true story.”
In 1994, Prince Charles himself admitted adultery. A flood of hatred fell upon Camille. And after Diana’s death in a car accident in 1997, the Prince of Wales realized that if he wanted to legitimize his relationship with Camilla, he needed a long-term strategy. He hired as a personal assistant one of the best specialists in image enhancement – for himself and his beloved. In 2002, the public “sanctioned” their marriage for the first time. 57% of Britons surveyed admitted that they are not against the wedding of Charles and Camilla. There was one more – the most important – a British woman, without whose consent they could not get married. And when, three years later, Elizabeth II allowed Charles to marry Camilla, they signed at a civil ceremony in the town hall in Windsor.
On the eve of her 75th birthday, the Duchess of Cornwall gave a long interview to British Vogue magazine. In it, she specifically revealed that she had been drawing negative attention to herself for so long that she “just had to find a way to live with it.”
Nobody likes to be looked at all the time and, you know, criticized. But I think in the end I got over it and got over it. We need to move on,” Camilla concluded.
She also said that it happens that she and Prince Charles do not see each other at all, but they set aside an hour every day to be together and talk. Sometimes they just read, sitting in silence in the same room. Here is a recipe for family happiness from the future Queen of Great Britain.
Yes, on February 6, 2022, in her message to the people of Britain, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne, Elizabeth II expressed her desire that her son’s wife receive the title of queen consort when Charles becomes king. So at an age when most people have either already retired or are about to do so, Duchess Camilla, 75, is gearing up for the most difficult period of her working life. This year – for the first time since her wedding on April 9, 2005 – more than half of Britons have agreed that she will become their queen.
Source: Hellomagazine
Benjamin Smith is a fashion journalist and author at Gossipify, known for his coverage of the latest fashion trends and industry insights. He writes about clothing, shoes, accessories, and runway shows, providing in-depth analysis and unique perspectives. He’s respected for his ability to spot emerging designers and trends, and for providing practical fashion advice to readers.
