Camilla Parker-Bowles celebrated her milestone birthday Sunday. One outlet revisited how her affair with Prince Charles started that rocked both of their respective marriages.
Camilla Parker-Bowles Convinced By Her Friends To Get Back With Prince Charles
In 2017, royal biographer Penny Junor wrote Camilla Parker-Bowles' biographer, where she revealed a series of bombshell revelations about the future queen consort. According to her, Duchess Camilla agreed to have an affair with Prince Charles while she was married to Andrew Parker-Bowles, and the Prince of Wales to Princess Diana, due to her pals.
Camilla's friends urged her to "go back to Prince Charles" even if both of them were still married to other people at the time, Daily Star reported.
According to Junor, Prince Charles and Camilla had been close for decades and their relationship dated back to the early 1970s. The Prince of Wales reportedly begged Camilla not to marry her first husband, but she didn't listen and went on with the marriage.
The royal couple rekindled their relationship later in Camilla's marriage, but the heir apparent was set to marry Princess Diana at the time. The late Princess of Wales was reportedly furious over Prince Charles' passion for Camilla.
Prince Charles and Camilla met first but didn't marry each because Camilla was not a virgin and not aristocratic enough for a royal wedding, according to Junor.
Prince Philip Also Reportedly Advised Prince Charles To Get Back With Camilla Parker-Bowles
According to royal experts, Princess Diana, who was only 20 when she married Prince Charles, was the perfect royal bride. However, Paul Burrell, Princess Diana's former butler, claimed in his 2003 book A Royal Duty, that the Prince of Wales couldn't move on from Camilla and Prince William, and Prince Harry's mom refused to settle for a marriage of three.
Prince Philip was reportedly aware that Prince Charles loved Camilla before his marriage to Princess Diana. The late Duke of Edinburgh reportedly assured the next king that he could get back with Camilla if his marriage with Princess Diana would not work.
"My father-in-law said to my husband, 'If your marriage doesn't work out, you can always go back to her after five years,'" Princess Diana said in a 2017 Channel 4 special that utilized taped conversations between the Princess of Wales and her voice coach (via E! News).
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"Which is exactly—I mean, for real I knew that it had happened after five—I knew something was happening before that but the fifth year I had confirmation."
Prince Charles admitted his affair with Camilla in a two-and-a-half-hour television documentary in 1994 with British journalist Jonathan Dimbleby. The Prince of Wales said he tried to be "faithful and honorable" during his marriage to the late Princess of Wales "until it became irretrievably broken," The New York Times reported.
Years after Princess Diana's death, Queen Elizabeth warmed up to Camilla and gave her approval to Prince Charles to marry her. They married in a civil ceremony in 1995.
Stay tuned for more news and updates about the royal family.
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