Camilla Parker Bowles’ Royal Followers ‘Disloyal’ to Princess Diana?
After almost one year in her role as queen consort, has Camilla Parker Bowles finally turned the tides of opinion in her favor? For years, royal followers found it difficult to accept Camilla due to her long affair with King Charles. Today, if Camilla’s followers accept and champion her work as a senior royal, are they “disloyal” to the late Princess Diana?
Camilla Parker Bowles and King Charles had an affair during his marriage to Princess Diana
Royal followers who followed the gossip surrounding the marriage of King Charles and Princess Diana learned of Camilla Parker Bowles by reading the British newspapers. There were years of rumblings about her affair with Charles.
Camilla’s place in royal history was cemented after Princess Diana shared details of Charles’s longtime affair with Camilla in the book Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton. Diana discussed Camilla’s influence over Charles and their affair within its pages.
Several commentators discussed Camilla’s current relationship with the public in a GBNews panel. Has Camilla finally turned the tides in her favor after years of negative publicity surrounding her relationship with the king?
“She had a bit of a torrid time when she met Charles. There was all the furor surrounding that. Now she’s kind of reinvented herself, according to polls anyway, as one of the more loved members of the royal family,” said GB News host Ben Leo.
“Camilla’s been the king’s rock for many years. Do you think she deserves some credit?” he asked.
Commentator Jenni Trent-Hughes admitted, “I’ve always liked her. I’ve always really liked her. She was always who he truly loved.”
Comedian Bruce Devlin agreed but said that perhaps Camilla wasn’t accepted by the public because
“Diana was so loved.” Host Ellie Costello agreed, saying. “I think people previously found it difficult because Diana was so loved and adored, and people feel almost disloyal.
Camilla Parker Bowles’ life in the royal spotlight was tainted by its dramatic beginnings
Patrick Jephson, Princess Diana’s private secretary in the 1980s and 1990s, told Entertainment Tonight, “There’s been a hell of a semantic game that the palace has played” regarding painting King Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles positively. Jephson claimed that the palace called Camilla Charles’ “indispensable friend.”
Jephson also pointed out that the palace had once said Charles would never remarry. He claimed Camilla would “never be called a princess,” and that “if he remarries, she will be called Duchess of Cornwall. And, if he becomes king, she’ll be called the Princess Consort.”
However, that didn’t prove to be the case. Camilla became queen consort upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Subsequently, she uses the title of Queen Camilla.
“It’s an all-conquering love, and that leaves many people uneasy, me included,” Jephson continued of Charles and Camilla’s relationship. But Camilla “is not a queen in the sense that Queen Elizabeth was queen.”
“She’s not Queen Regnant; she’s Queen Consort. Even though the king wants us to call her queen.”
Camilla’s “job as Queen Consort is to support the king, plain and simple. Over the years, she has shown she’s very good at that.”
Did Princess Diana and Camilla Parker Bowles ever reconcile their differences?
According to Andrew Morton’s book, Diana: Her True Story, the Princess of Wales confronted Camilla Parker Bowles at a birthday party regarding her affair with King Charles. She reportedly said, according to Morton, “I know what’s going on between you and Charles, and I just want you to know that.”
Camilla allegedly responded, “You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world falling in love with you, and you’ve got two beautiful children. What more do you want?” Diana said, “I want my husband.”
Princess Diana and King Charles divorced in 1996. One year later, Diana died in a car crash in Paris, France. Camilla Parker Bowles and Charles wed in 2005.
