“There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” Diana said that in a BBC Panorama interview, and everyone knew who the third person was. On 8 September 2022, when Queen Elizabeth II died and Charles became king, that third person became Queen Consort.
Camilla Rosemary Shand was born on 17 July 1947 and grew up in East Sussex, the eldest of three children. Her father Bruce was a British army officer. She went to Queen’s Gate School in London, then finished her education in Switzerland and Paris.
Fifty years of a story
She and Charles met in the summer of 1971, according to Penny Junor’s biography. A mutual friend, Lucia Santa Cruz, introduced them and teased them over an old family link: Camilla’s great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, had been a long-term mistress of King Edward VII. Legend has it Camilla said it herself: “My great-grandmother was your great-great grandfather’s mistress, how about it?”
Charles joined the Navy that year and was away at sea for long stretches. The relationship cooled. In 1973 Camilla married cavalry officer Andrew Parker Bowles at the Guards Chapel in London, and they had two children, Tom and Laura. Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Sometime in the 1980s, it is thought, the romance with Camilla resumed.
In 1994 Charles admitted infidelity in a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, saying he had stayed faithful until the marriage “became irretrievably broken down.” Camilla’s divorce came in 1995, Charles and Diana’s in 1996, and Diana died in 1997.
What followed was a managed return to public life. Mark Bolland masterminded a PR campaign, and in January 1999 photographers who had been tipped off waited outside the Ritz hotel in London as the couple left Camilla’s sister’s birthday party. The press called it Operation Ritz. In 2003 they moved in together at Clarence House, and on 9 April 2005 they married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, followed by a blessing at St George’s Chapel. The Queen and Prince Philip attended only the blessing.
The title
For years nobody knew what Camilla would be called once Charles was king. The Queen settled it in February 2022, saying it was her “sincere wish” that Camilla be known as Queen Consort. She also spoke of her own husband as a partner “willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it.”
By then, the Standard noted, Camilla had spent 17 years of marriage growing into the role. She was patron or supporter of literacy charities, spoke up for victims of domestic violence and backed several animal welfare groups. Joe Little of Majesty magazine said: “It’s amazing what a difference 20 years makes, she’s gone from not quite obscurity to the second highest in the land.”
In his first address as king, Charles said that in recognition of her loyal public service she “becomes my Queen Consort.” Little put the case for her plainly: “I would certainly say she was ready.”
Sources
- Camilla’s remarkable journey from royal mistress to Queen Consort
- What does Queen Consort mean – and why is the title changing for Camilla?
- Queen Camilla's life in photos: Her journey to queen consort
