SADDEST REVELATION: King Charles FINALLY Speaks Out On He And Camilla’s Marriage Crisis
King Charles and Queen Camilla had a roller coaster of a relationship for years — including during their previous marriages.
The couple, known as Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall until Queen Elizabeth’s death on Sept. 8, 2022, hit it off as soon as they met in 1970, but their relationship didn’t last at the time. They moved on and got married to others: Charles famously wed Princess Diana, while Camilla tied the knot with Andrew Parker Bowles.
The pair eventually reunited romantically. Amid a flurry of royal scandal, including leaked audio recordings of some of their pillow talk, Charles and Camilla each divorced their spouses and laid low. A year after Princess Diana’s tragic passing in 1997, Charles and Camilla appeared publicly as a couple.
Prince Charles and Camilla wed in April 2005, and Camilla received the title of Duchess of Cornwall following their union. After Queen Elizabeth died, Charles became King Charles and bestowed the title of Queen Consort upon his wife.
I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago, she becomes my Queen Consort,” King Charles said in his first address to the nation as monarch.
In April 2023, a palace insider spoke about the couple’s strong bond ahead of Charles’ historic coronation. “She is the yin to his yang,” the source said. “She is the type to say, ‘It’ll all be fine; let’s crack on and get on with things.
On May 6, 2023, King Charles and Queen Camilla were officially crowned during a joint coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Following the ceremony, Charles and Camilla made their Buckingham Palace balcony debut as monarch and Queen Consort.
Buckingham Palace revealed that Charles had been diagnosed with cancer in February 2024 after a “separate issue of concern was noted” while he was undergoing a procedure to treat an enlarged prostate,
“His Majesty has today commenced a schedule of regular treatments, during which time he has been advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties. Throughout this period, His Majesty will continue to undertake State business and official paperwork as usual,” said the statement issued on Feb. 5.
Though their relationship certainly had a rocky start, their love has been seemingly smooth ever since. Here’s everything to know about King Charles and Queen Camilla’s relationship.
1970: Prince Charles and Camilla meet
Prince Charles met Camilla in 1970 when they were introduced by a mutual friend, Lucia Santa Cruz. In The Duchess: The Untold Story, author Penny Junor wrote that Charles was immediately smitten.
He loved the fact that she smiled with her eyes as well as her mouth, and laughed at the same silly things as he did,” Junor wrote. “He also liked that she was so natural and easy and friendly, not in any way overawed by him, not fawning or sycophantic. In short, he was very taken with her, and after that first meeting he began ringing her up.”
1971: Prince Charles and Camilla split
In 1971, Prince Charles joined the Royal Navy, and the grueling schedule and time away from home put his relationship with Camilla in turmoil. Further complicating their romance was that Camilla didn’t meet royal prerequisites for marrying the heir to the throne: Reports claimed she wasn’t a virgin and she didn’t have an aristocratic bloodline. Charles and Camilla split, believing they didn’t have a feasible future together.
1973: Camilla marries Andrew Parker Bowles
While Prince Charles was in the Caribbean serving in the Royal Navy, Camilla got engaged to Parker Bowles — incidentally, a former boyfriend of Prince Charles’ younger sister Princess Anne. They married in 1973, devastating Charles, who reportedly tried to stop Camilla from marrying Parker Bowles.
“It seemed to him particularly cruel, he wrote in one letter, that after ‘such a blissful, peaceful and mutually happy relationship,’ fate had decreed that it should last a mere six months,” Junor wrote.
Despite his broken heart, Prince Charles and Camilla remained good friends for several years after their breakup and during her marriage to Parker Bowles.
1978-1979: Prince Charles and Camilla begin an affair
According to Junor, Prince Charles and Camilla reignited their physical relationship around 1978 or 1979 — and Camilla’s husband was said to be fully aware of what was happening.
“Andrew was in no position to complain; and when he discovered what was going on, he wisely didn’t make a fuss,” Junor wrote in The Duchess: The Untold Story. “Some would say that a part of him actually quite enjoyed the fact that his wife was sleeping with the future King; he might have felt differently had Charles been a traveling salesman.”
1980: Prince Charles begins dating Princess Diana
Despite his relationship with Camilla, Prince Charles began courting Lady Diana Spencer in 1980. Born into an aristocratic family, Diana was more suited to wed the heir to the throne, according to royal family traditions and beliefs.
Though Prince Charles was dating Diana, he and Camilla were still quite close. Camilla and Diana were both spotted attending one of Charles’ races in 1980.
July 29, 1981: Prince Charles and Princess Diana marry in the “wedding of the century”
After proposing to Diana in February 1981, Prince Charles and Princess Diana wed on July 29, 1981. Dubbed “the wedding of the century,” 750 million people tuned in to watch Charles and Diana tie the knot. Camilla was a guest at the nuptials with her son Tom Parker Bowles.
1986: Prince Charles and Camilla begin another affair
Prince Charles and Camilla reportedly began seeing one another again in 1986, despite both of them being married with children. In recordings she made for author Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story, Princess Diana recalled calling Camilla out for her affair with Charles.
I was terrified of her … I said, ‘I know what’s going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that,’ ” Diana recalled. “She said to me, ‘You’ve got everything you ever wanted. All the men in the world fall in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children, what more would you want?’ … So I said, ‘I want my husband.’ ”
Diana added, ” ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way … and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot.’ ”
December 9, 1992: Prince Charles and Princess Diana announce their separation
Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation on Dec. 9, 1992. At the time, Buckingham Palace said that there were no imminent plans to divorce and that the estranged couple would still occasionally attend royal events together.
January 17, 1993: Audio recordings of Prince Charles and Camilla’s private calls are leaked
On Jan. 17, 1993, audio recordings of Prince Charles and Camilla were leaked and the transcripts were published in British tabloids. Recorded in December 1989 — while Charles was married to Diana and Camilla was married to Parker Bowles — the audio included both raunchy innuendoes and outright declarations of love.
June 1994: Prince Charles admits to cheating on Princess Diana
In an interview with ITV, Prince Charles was asked if he tried to be “faithful and honorable” to Princess Diana when they married. As his affair with Camilla had already been exposed to the public, Prince Charles replied, “Yes … until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried.”
He also said of Camilla, “Mrs. Parker Bowles is a great friend of mine … a friend for a very long time. She will continue to be a friend for a very long time.”
January 11, 1995: Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorce
On Jan. 11, 1995, Camilla and Parker Bowles announced their plans to divorce. The pair said in a statement that they lived apart for two years before deciding to split permanently, adding, “There is little of common interest between us.”
Speculation of a divorce between Charles and Diana went into full force following Camilla and Parker Bowles’ announcement, but the palace denied any plans for the Prince and Princess of Wales to end their marriage. Camilla and Parker Bowles’ divorce was finalized in March 1995.
October 18, 1995: Camilla and Prince Charles both attend a party for a mutual friend
Though they arrived separately, Camilla and Prince Charles attended a party for mutual friend Lady Sarah Keswick in October 1995, reportedly dancing together for two hours at the event. Up to that point, Camilla and Charles had taken pains not to appear at the same events, especially since Prince Charles was still legally married to (albeit estranged from) Princess Diana at the time.
A month prior, Camilla had been spotted joining Charles at the royal family’s country estate, Balmoral. During the same period, she was also frequently spotted at Prince Charles’ country house, Highgrove.
A veteran royal journalist told PEOPLE that the semi-joint outing at Lady Keswick’s celebration “was hugely significant. It opened up the gates a little further — making the point that he and Camilla are a couple and will be seen at things together.”
November 20, 1995: Princess Diana talks about Prince Charles and Camilla’s affair on Panorama
Princess Diana spoke publicly about Prince Charles and Camilla’s affair in an interview with BBC’s Panorama in November 1995.
Acknowledging her own extramarital relationship with James Hewitt, Princess Diana said that she “desperately wanted” her marriage to Prince Charles to work. She said it was her “woman’s instinct” that initially made her suspicious. Diana also added that Charles’ infidelity was “pretty devastating” and made her feel “useless and hopeless and failed.”
Her most famous quote about the affair remains indelible today: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
It was later found that journalist Martin Bashir used deception to get Princess Diana to agree to the interview, and the BBC has vowed “never” to broadcast the interview again.
