The relationship between King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom has definitely raised eyebrows over the years. The couple had an affair while Charles was still married to Princess Diana, and during the last few years of her life, it was reported that the alleged affair tormented the late princess. There was even an interview from 1995 where she referenced the affair to a young Prince William.
Then tragedy struck when Princess Diana passed away due to a car accident in 1997. Following this, Charles and Camilla began officially seeing each other two years after Princess Diana’s death. Because of Diana’s untimely passing, Charles did not want to overwhelm his family with the sudden inclusion of a new spouse. Harry and William were still minors when their mother passed and Charles decided that it would be best to wait until they were adults to get married to Camilla.
But one major difference between Charles’ second wife is that Camilla never went by the title of princess, despite Diana, his first wife, doing so. In fact, the reason why has something to do with Diana — Camilla paid her respect to Diana by opting to take on a different title.
After Queen Elizabeth’s death on Sept. 8, 2022, Charles ascended the throne to become King Charles III. Following this, titles throughout the royal family changed as everyone’s roles moved. However, previously it was unclear what Camilla’s title would be, with varying reports of “Princess Consort” instead of “Queen Consort” which is “the customary title for the wife of a reigning king.” After Charles expressed a desire to change this, the queen supported this decision, which she addressed in a speech in Feb. 2022. Then upon her death, Camilla officially took on the title “Queen Consort.” Let’s take a look at how Camilla’s title was chosen.
King Charles III was born on Nov. 14. 1948, almost a year to the day after Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s wedding on Nov. 20, 1947. The eldest child of the royal couple, Charles was born in the Buhl Room of Buckingham Palace via cesarean section when Elizabeth was still a princess. Prince Philip was not present as his wife was in labor for 30 hours, and to quell his nerves, he decided to play a game of squash with his private secretary.
The Daily Mail reported that when the prince finally received news of a successful delivery, he bounded to the room, which had been converted into an operating theater, still in his sporting flannels and open-neck shirt before declaring the child looked like a plum pudding. He also presented Elizabeth with a bouquet of flowers — red roses and carnations to be exact. In keeping with tradition, the bells of Westminster Abbey were rung and King George VI’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired a 41-gun salute.
As heir apparent, it’s fair to say that Charles probably considered his future role as king when he was a young boy. After all, he began to be prepared for the role from a young age. However, he likely had no idea that he wouldn’t ascend the throne until he was 73, thanks to his mother’s incredible longevity and refusal to abdicate the throne.
Charles’ royal duties didn’t begin until he was 19 years old when he became the Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in July 1958. However, his investiture didn’t take place until July 1, 1969, when he was crowned by his mother, Queen Elizabeth, in Caernarvon, Wales. The ceremony was televised to the public.
After studying at university, including graduating from the prestigious University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts, Charles embarked on his royal duties. But it was his personal life that shot him into the spotlight after his engagement and later marriage to Princess Diana became global news.
They were married on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Despite their union not lasting, their wedding went down in history and is still remembered today — there’s a reason it’s called the “wedding of the century.” Diana was just 20 years old while Charles was 32.
Less than a year after their wedding, the couple’s firstborn child and future king, William, Prince of Wales, was born. Just two years later, Prince Harry was born on Sept. 15, 1984. But sadly, after Harry’s birth, the relationship between Diana and Charles forever changed. Royal biographer Andrew Morton included transcripts of a conversation he had with the late princess in his re-release of “Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words.” According to Harper’s Bazaar, Diana said:
“Charles and I were very, very close to each other the six weeks before Harry was born, the closest we’ve ever, ever been and ever will be. Then, suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain.”
Despite appearing as a happy family for a number of years, behind closed doors, Charles and Diana’s marriage suffered. A royal commentator said in an upcoming documentary titled “The Princess,” as reported by Marie Claire, that despite being a husband with two young children, Charles, “always carried on ever since he got married as if he were a bachelor.” Alleged affairs racked their marriage before Charles and Diana eventually separated in 1992, before finally getting divorced in 1996.
After Charles’ marriage to Diana ended, tragedy struck when she passed away in a car accident in 1997. The world mourned the People’s Princess and tragically, the couple’s sons William and Harry were left without their mother.
Since there were allegations that Charles had cheated on Diana during their marriage with Camilla, who was a former girlfriend of his, Charles and Camilla’s relationship raised eyebrows from the start. Two years after Diana’s death, Charles and Camilla began officially seeing each other, but because of his ex-wife’s untimely passing, Charles didn’t push to get married to Camilla immediately, taking into consideration his young sons, William and Harry, who were still minors at the time. Charles thought it would be best if he and Camilla waited until his sons were adults for them to wed.
Then, finally, on April 9, 2005, the couple married in a private ceremony, despite having dated in public for six years prior to tying the knot. However, the couple’s anniversary on April 9 would coincide with another royal anniversary over 15 years later — the sad passing of Charles’ father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who died in 2021 on that day.
Ever since Charles and Camilla’s wedding their relationship has been a stable one, as they’ve embarked on royal trips together, as well as many official engagements. Public opinion on Camilla also warmed up over the years and nowadays their relationship is seen in a much better light than it was at the turn of the century. But there is one particular topic that’s stayed on the radar over the years — Camilla’s official royal title. In fact, the late queen even commented on the matter multiple times.
Upon Charles and Camilla’s engagement in February 2005, a statement from the palace was released in which questions about Camilla’s status and title as queen were addressed. The statement, released on Feb. 10, 2005, announced their marriage and immediately mentioned that Camilla would be using the title “HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.”
Harpers Bazaar noted that Camilla actually had the opportunity to pick up the title “Princess of Wales,” but since the beloved, late Diana was bestowed that title, Camilla avoided it. The royal statement also clarified that since Charles, at the time, was next in line to the throne after Queen Elizabeth II, “It is intended that Mrs. Parker Bowles should use the title HRH The Princess Consort when The Prince of Wales accedes to The Throne.”
However, after it became time for Charles to take the throne on Sept. 8, 2022, people wondered if Camilla would be given the title “Queen Consort” instead, especially since she had become more accepted and beloved by the public. Daily Mail reported in June 2021 that Charles had wanted to convince his sons to let Camilla have the title, but both Harry and William were vehemently against it.
Royal author Robert Lacey wrote, “The main thing Charles wants is for the pair of them to smile on Camilla becoming his full Queen Consort (instead of Princess Consort, as officially pre-ordained at present).” This news came from a friend of the princes according to Lacey.
He continued: “He’s fixated about it — something he never stops trying to negotiate with both of them. But they will never say ‘Yes’ to Camilla taking the place that their mother should have filled.”
Because Prince Harry and Prince William both have incredible involvement and attachment to their mother’s legacy, it’s understandable that the matter of witnessing their father remarry was a delicate one. The princes were 15 and 12 years old respectively when their mother died. This is part of the reason why Charles and Camilla waited to finally marry.
According to Express, royal biographer Penny Junor wrote in her 2005 book “The Firm”:
“A not insignificant part of the reason why they had waited until 2005 to announce their engagement was a sensitivity towards the boys. They didn’t want to foist a stepmother on William and Harry before they had fully grown up.”
However, in February 2022, the Royal Family’s Twitter account tweeted an important message from Queen Elizabeth. The message mostly spoke about her gratitude for being the reigning monarch for 70 years and her gratitude for her family. In the message, the queen also wrote:
“And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”
Since then, the title was still the topic of debate as there hasn’t been one traditional way that the royals have lived in the past. According to the Washington Post, when King William III reigned from 1689 to 1694, his wife Queen Mary II went by “queen” rather than “queen consort.” With King Charles III’s ascension to the throne upon his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s death, it was confirmed that Camilla would officially take on the title of “Queen Consort,” just as Charles and Elizabeth wanted.
In the same article, Lacey also wrote that both William and Harry were quarreling even during Philip’s funeral. There had been a semblance of peace between the brothers at one point when they were spotted having a conversation after the funeral service, but Lacey reported that this was quickly replaced with anger once the cameras were no longer on them.
One friend told Lacey: “There they were, at each other’s throats as fiercely as ever. The rage and anger between those two has grown so incredibly deep. Too many harsh and wounding things have been said.”
The feud between William and Harry has made the front page many times, and this rift is the subject of a multi-part BBC documentary, “The Princes and the Press,” which premiered on Nov. 22, 2021, in the UK.
In a rare collective statement from Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Clarence House, the royal family denounced the documentary, describing it as a film based on “overblown and unfounded claims.” According to Newsweek, the series featured interviews with journalists about supposed “leaks from within Kensington Palace” on controversial topics such as “whether Meghan Markle was difficult to work for.” The two brothers’ supposedly stormy relationship was also a subject of the documentary.
The BBC released its own statement in a piece published on Nov. 23, 2021. The news organization contended that the documentary was “about how royal journalism is done and features a range of journalists from broadcast and the newspaper industry.”
Amol Rajan, the BBC journalist at the center of “The Princess and the Press,” wrote in his own piece that the documentary was the product of over “80 hours of interviews” conducted over one year.
What are your thoughts on Camilla being named “Queen Consort” now that King Charles III has ascended the throne? Tell us your thoughts, and be sure to pass this on to others as well.
