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“My dear wife”. That’s what King Charles calls Camilla. “The Rottweiler” was the less flattering epithet she was given by Princess Diana.
When Camilla Parker Bowles is crowned Queen of Great Britain on May 6, it will be after an eventful journey in the British public, to say the least.
Turbulent, sometimes traumatic – but ultimately somewhat triumphant. Camilla Parker Bowles long-standing relationship with the British can perhaps best be described that way.
After many years of being portrayed as ultimately responsible for the divorce between Charles and Diana, Camilla was seen by many as the very image of “the other woman”. Not least after Diana announced in a highly publicized television interview in 1995 that they were “three people in the marriage”.
However, the image of Camilla was founded already in 1992 in the form of “Camillagate”, when intimate telephone conversations between her and Charles were leaked to the British press.
A persistent rumor also claims that a group of angry people after the scandal should have bombarded Camilla with a bunch of French bread in a parking lot – which, however, has always been denied by the future queen, writes The Guardian.
Down to earth person
In 1999, Charles and Camilla appeared for the first time in public during a party at the luxury hotel Ritz in London. The incident was part of the meticulously planned PR campaign “Operation PB” (after Parker Bowles), which had been staged by Charles to give the British a more positive image of Camilla.
Over the years, many Britons have also gained a more positive image of Camilla, and before the coronation, 38 percent have answered that they like her, according to a recent survey by the Yougov institute.
“Must be able to laugh”
The future queen is described by her friends as free-spirited and down-to-earth – and, like Queen Elizabeth II, with a strong interest in horses.
In a famous quote, Camilla is portrayed as someone who “could happily get off her horse and put on an evening dress – without first taking a bath”, writes The Independent.
Camilla herself describes herself as a person who does not take herself too seriously.
– You have to be able to laugh at yourself. If you can’t do that – then you just have to give up, she said in one of her rare interviews, made with the Daily Mail in 2017.
Support for Charles
Many also testify to how the confident Camilla has always been a support for the considerably more insecure Charles. According to the British historian Robert Lacey, the couple’s relationship can be illustrated by a high-profile incident during a visit to Northern Ireland last autumn.
A leaking fountain pen at a signing then led to Charles having an outburst of anger – and was quickly rescued by Camilla, who took over the task.
– The only one who can calm him down and help him, in a way that his parents definitely never succeeded in, is Camilla, says Lacey to The Guardian.
Facts
Queen Camilla
Born in 1947 as Camilla Shand in London.
Meets Prince Charles in the early 1970s at a polo match.
Marries Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973, with whom she has children Tom and Laura.
In 1992, the “Camillagate” scandal breaks out, when transcripts of intimate telephone conversations between Charles and Camilla are leaked to the British press.
1995 Camilla divorces Andrew Parker Bowles.
In 2005, she married Charles, then Prince.
When the couple married in 2005, only seven percent of Britons believed that Camilla would one day become queen, according to a survey by the Yougov survey.
Crowned on May 6 as Queen in Westminster Abbey in London.
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