Many people struggled with accepting Queen Camilla into the royal family, as her name was involved with some unpleasant event. Her marriage into the royal family was not same as Kate Middleton or Meghan Markle.
She started her royal career as the mistress of Charles, while he was still married with late Princess Diana. After her passing, Charles got married with Camilla, and she officially entered into the royal family.
Nonetheless, Camilla was not a commoner. She was born on the 17th of July, 1947. She is coming from a family, where it had the members Alice Keppel, the mistress of Edward VII, and Thomas Cubitt.
Her family was wealthy, and had properties in East Essex and South Kensington. The family had an elite place in the society. Camilla also had supportive parents which was against the thoughts of that era.
“I was one of the very lucky ones, I had the idyllic childhood right in the country, sitting on the South Downs with my brother and my sister and our pets and our ponies. I think it was a very simple childhood,” Queen Camilla said in her interview with Women’s Day.
“Sometimes in the summer, we used to ride to school on our ponies, probably something that’s more Australian than English, but we used to ride and then tie them up and ride back again. It just shows how things have changed because, in those days, there was nothing on the roads. Can you imagine now letting a child ride to school with its satchel on its back? I mean, it wouldn’t happen.”
Queen Camilla grew up in the countryside which is the reason why she loves horses. Her mother, Rosalind Shand was coming from a rich family. Camilla was close to her mother and her mother taught her well.
“My mother was absolutely brilliant at making us speak to people,” Camilla shared. “She used to have people to dinner; it didn’t matter who it was, old or young, some of them we thought were incredibly boring, but she used to sit at the end of the table and say: ‘Talk! I don’t care whether you’re talking about your pony or your homework, just talk!’ She was also quite forthright and never minced her words.”
“I get petrified making speeches,” she also shared. “I hate every moment of it. People always say it’ll get better and sometimes I find it’s all right if I really know my subject, but sometimes [I get] that awful thing beforehand of really shaking and feeling seriously sick.”
Camilla attended to Swiss finishing school Mon Fertile, and later studied at the Institut Britannique in Paris. She then worked as a secretary in some London firms, and got fired for getting late for work after a night of partying.
“There were lots of debutantes working for us, even Camilla. She worked for us for a moment but got the sack.” Was shared by a colleague of Camilla, from Colegax and Fowler.
“He would shout and bellow so the whole building heard every word. The Duchess of Cornwall was one assistant who fell victim to one of tantrums. I think she came in late, having been to a dance,” Imogen Taylor, Camilla’s colleague said.
Since money was not a problem for Camilla, she shared that she was confident. “If people think I am strong, then it’s all down to my family,” Camilla said. “I had so much love and security growing up. I never doubted my family would be there for me in times of crisis.”
She was in her 20s when she got married with Andrew Parker Bowles. Later, she met with then-Prince Charles during a polo match. And during that time, Charles started to date 16-year-old Diana Spencer.
“I met [Camilla] very early on. I was introduced to the circle, but I was a threat, I was a very young girl, but I was a threat,” Princess Diana shared in “Diana: In Her Own Words.”
As Carles biography is suggesting, the affair between Camilla and Charles started in 1986. Charles was married with Diana at that time. After Diana learned about the affair, she confronted Camilla.
In 1992, Charles and Diana got separated and their marriage ended in 1996. At that time, Camilla and Charles were officially a couple. After the phone call between Camilla and Charles got leaked, she received a huge backlash.
“It was very difficult for her, as she was portrayed as the most wicked woman in the world. She was constantly called nasty names like ‘rottweiler,’ and it must have come as a huge shock that people were so vile about her,” royal expert Angela Levin shared.
I don’t think Charles realised how awful it was for her. He was often away on engagements and working hard for the country and Commonwealth, and at the time, Camilla didn’t have protection officers because she wasn’t part of the Royal Family. But when Charles finally realised, he did get protection for her, which he paid for himself.”
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