Camilla Parker Bowles: a biography<\/h4>\n
Maiden name:<\/strong> Camilla Rosemary Shand<\/p>\n Born:<\/strong> 17 July 1947, at King\u2019s College Hospital, London<\/p>\n Married to:<\/strong> Prince Charles (m. 2005\u2013present); Andrew Parker Bowles (m. 1973\u201395)<\/p>\n Children:<\/strong> Thomas Henry (born 1974) and Laura Rose (Lopes) (born 1978)<\/p>\n Grandchildren:<\/strong> Eliza Lopes (born 2008); Louis Lopes (born 2009); Gus Lopes (born 2009); Lola Parker Bowles (born 2007) and Freddy Parker Bowles (born 2010)<\/p>\n Parents:<\/strong> Major Bruce Middleton Hope Shand and The Hon Rosalind Maud Shand (n\u00e9e Cubitt)<\/p>\n Siblings:<\/strong> Annabel Elliot (born 1949) and Mark Shand (1951\u20132014)<\/p>\n Educated:<\/strong> Dumbrells School in Sussex; Queen\u2019s Gate School in South Kensington; Mon Fertile School in Switzerland and the Institut Britannique in Paris<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, was born Camilla Rosemary Shand on 17 July 1947 at King\u2019s College Hospital, London. Born into a well-to-do family, Camilla grew up on a sprawling country estate in Plumpton, Sussex. Her father, Major Bruce Shand, was Vice Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, while her mother, Rosalind, came from the aristocratic and wealthy Cubitt family \u2013 her ancestor Thomas Cubitt made his fortune as a property developer in the 19th century. Her father\u2019s rank meant Camilla and her family lived somewhat regally and socialised with Britain\u2019s high society.<\/p>\n Camilla, the eldest of three children, was first educated at Dumbrells School, a co-ed school in Sussex, and later attended the fashionable independent all-girls boarding school Queen\u2019s Gate School in South Kensington. There she acquired the nickname \u2018Milla\u2019 and, according to the journalist and author Christopher Andersen<\/a>, was known to boast about the fact her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was the mistress of King Edward VII. \u201cFellow pupils remember 10-year-old \u2018Milla\u2019 waltzing into class and grandly ordering the other children to bow before her. \u2018My great-grandmother was the lover of the King,\u2019 she proclaimed. \u2018We\u2019re practically royalty\u2019\u201d, writes Andersen in his 2016 book Game of Crowns<\/em>.<\/p>\n Camilla was described as a tomboy and said to possess a \u201cboisterous sense of humour and utter lack of self-consciousness that made her a favourite of both sexes \u2013 but especially the boys\u201d. Camilla left Queen\u2019s Gate at the age of 16 with a love of reading<\/a> \u2013 but with only one O Level to her name (in kennel hygiene).<\/p>\n After attending finishing schools in Switzerland and France, Camilla returned to London to work briefly as a receptionist at a Mayfair-based decorating firm. It was around this time, in 1965, aged 17, that she first met Andrew Parker Bowles, an officer in the Royal Horse Guards, at a debutante party. The pair proceeded to date on and off for seven years, during which time Andrew was said to also been involved with a number of other women \u2013 including Princess Anne<\/a>, whom he dated briefly in 1970.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It was in the summer of 1971 when a 24-year-old Camilla first met Prince Charles<\/a>, who was then 22. A legend has been fostered that the couple were introduced at a polo match at Smith\u2019s Lawn in Windsor, but, according to Jonathan Dimbleby\u2019s authorised biography, The Prince of Wales <\/em>(1994), the introduction was in fact made by a mutual friend, Lucia Santa Cruz, daughter of the Chilean ambassador to the United Kingdom, whom Charles had met when he was a student at Cambridge.<\/p>\n Charles and Camilla were instantly attracted to one another and over the next 18 months their friendship became a love affair. But \u201cCharles knew that his parents would not approve of the relationship,\u201d writes Marlene Koenig in this article for HistoryExtra<\/em><\/a>. Camilla\u2019s background, while well-to-do, was not sufficiently aristocratic, and Camilla had what Prince Charles\u2019s godmother, Patricia, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, described as a \u201chistory\u201d.<\/p>\n So it was that as Prince Charles prepared to join HMS Minerva<\/em> in mid-January 1973 for a seven-month voyage in the Caribbean, he refrained from expressing the depth of his feelings for Camilla. Two months later, in March 1973, Camilla became engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.<\/p>\n Camilla and Andrew married at Guards\u2019 Chapel, Wellington Barracks, on 4 July 1973. The wedding was attended by Princess Anne and Charles\u2019s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Charles, meanwhile, sent his regrets from the Minerva<\/em>.<\/p>\n The following year Camilla gave birth to her first child, a son named Thomas Henry, and just under four years later, in January 1978, welcomed a daughter named Laura. Interestingly, Thomas is today not only Prince Charles\u2019s stepson, but also his godson.<\/p>\n In the early years of Camilla\u2019s marriage to Andrew, her relationship with Prince Charles was said to have remained platonic, writes Koenig. But the pair became romantically involved again shortly after the birth of Camilla\u2019s second child, Laura, in early 1978, and in 1979 Charles turned to Camilla for consolation for his grief following the death of his beloved great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten<\/a>. This second affair lasted until Charles\u2019s engagement to Diana<\/a> in 1981.<\/p>\n Camilla remained Charles\u2019s close friend and confidante throughout the 1980s \u2013 the pair were seen going to the theatre together and attending many of the same parties \u2013 but the prince would insist years later that he had been faithful to Diana until their marriage had \u201cirretrievably broken down\u201d<\/a>. Charles says he rekindled his affair with Camilla only in 1986, when his marriage was beyond repair. This was five years after he married Diana.<\/p>\n In 1989, while attending the 40th\u00a0birthday party of Camilla\u2019s sister, Annabel Elliot, at the home of Lady Annabel Goldsmith in London, Diana is reported to have confronted Camilla about the nature of her relationship with her husband. According to Andrew Morton\u2019s controversial 1992 biography, Diana: Her True Story<\/em>, Diana told Camilla: \u201cI know what\u2019s going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n Morton claims Camilla told Diana \u201cyou\u2019ve got all the men in the world fall in love with you and you\u2019ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?\u201d, to which Diana responded: \u201cI want my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to know even more about the real events from history that inspired the drama? Read more from the experts\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u00a0<\/p>\n The affair reportedly continued, and in the summer of 1994 Charles\u2019s interview with Jonathan Dimbleby was televised \u201cin which he admitted infidelity and revealed both a lack of sympathy for Diana\u2026 and a worrying distance from his family,\u201d writes Sarah Gristwood in this article for HistoryExtra<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n The following year, in January 1995, Camilla and Andrew announced their divorce. \u201cThroughout our marriage we have always tended to follow rather different interests, but in recent years we have led completely separate lives,\u201d the couple said in a statement. A few months later, in November 1995, Princess Diana gave her famous Panorama<\/em> interview with Martin Bashir in which she told viewers \u201cthere were three of us in this marriage \u2013 so it was a bit crowded\u201d. [In 2021, an independent inquiry found that Martin Bashir used deception to secure the interview<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Within weeks of the interview, the Queen<\/a> suggested the couple should divorce \u2013 and quickly. Charles\u2019s marriage to Diana was dissolved<\/a> in August 1996, after four years of separation. On 31 August 1997, Diana was killed<\/a> in a car accident in Paris.<\/p>\n![\""Camilla\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2020\/09\/GettyImages-1053860668-c0113f0.jpg?quality=90&resize=550%2C413"\" "\\"\"Camilla\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>When did Camilla meet her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles?<\/h3>\n
![\""Andrew\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2020\/09\/GettyImages-489213471-1-9459be7.jpg?quality=90&resize=279%2C413"\" "\\"\"Andrew\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>When did Camilla meet Prince Charles?<\/h3>\n
![\""Prince\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2020\/09\/GettyImages-3285878-0d90939.jpg?quality=90&resize=331%2C413"\" "\\"\"Prince\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""Camilla\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2020\/09\/GettyImages-3337699-a21d834.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C408"\" "\\"\"Camilla\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>When did Charles and Camilla begin their extra-marital relationship?<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The real history behind The Crown<\/em><\/h4>\n