King Charles Couldn’t Marry Camilla Parker Bowles for a ‘Primitive’ Reason, Royal Expert Says in New Doc
Days before his coronation, a new documentary is looking back at the life of King Charles III. Charles: In His Own Words premieres Friday, April 28 on National Geographic. The one-hour special traces the king’s life over the past seven decades, exploring his privileged childhood as the future monarch, his years at boarding school, his tumultuous marriage to Princess Diana, and more. It also looks at his initial relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and why, despite their feelings for each other, she was deemed an unsuitable bride for the future king.
Prince Charles faced intense pressure to choose a proper bride
In the mid-1970s, Charles was facing pressure to marry and have children. Choosing a woman to be his wife wasn’t a decision he took lightly.
“In my position, you’re going to marry somebody who perhaps one day is going to become queen,” he says in an archival interview featured in the documentary. “You’ve got to choose somebody very carefully, I think, who could fulfill this particular role … it’s gotta be somebody pretty special.”
Of course, there wasn’t a shortage of young women lining up for a chance to audition for the part of the then-prince’s wife. Charles’ great uncle and mentor Lord Mountbatten reportedly advised him to “sow his wild oats” and even provided use of a discreet weekend house where he could meet women. But potential brides didn’t have the same freedom.
Why Charles and Camilla wouldn’t have been allowed to marry
As a man, Charles was expected to play the field before settling down. But his future queen needed to have a sterling reputation.
“What you had to look for in the way of a bride in his position was this virginal, perfect, unblemished wife who would be a good bearer of children,” explains William Heseltine, former private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, in Charles: In His Own Words.
That led to a major problem for Camilla – the “love of Prince Charles’ life,” according to royal historian Anna Whitelock. She and the prince met in 1970 and fell for each other. But acting on their feelings took marriage off the table, another expert said.
“Poor Camilla’s problem was sort of catch-22,” explains historian and biographer Robert Lacey. “When she met Prince Charles, she fell in love, they went to bed together. But that sort of automatically ruled her out as a future queen.”
“We told Prince Charles, ‘Sorry, mate. You can’t marry Camilla because she’s been to bed with you,’” Lacey adds. “It sounds ridiculous. It sounds primitive. And it was.”
Princess Diana was everything Camilla Parker Bowles was not
In 1973, Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, though she and Charles remained close.
“Unfortunately, of course, for both of them, Charles and Camilla, the emotional attachment remained,” Lacey says. “And so their love affair continued.”
But whatever his feelings for the now-married Camilla, Charles still needed to find a wife. Ideally she would be a woman “who had no past,” notes Majesty magazine editor Ingrid Seward. Enter 19-year-old Diana Spencer.
Charles and Diana married in 1981 and soon had two children. For a time, they were “a dream team,” says royal biographer Hugo Vickers. But before long, the marriage soured. They separated in 1993. And in 2005, Charles finally married the woman who had first caught his eye more than 30 years earlier: Camilla Parker Bowles.
Charles: In His Own Words airs Friday, April 28 at 10 p.m. ET on National Geographic. It streams the next day on Hulu and May 5 on Disney+.
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