Queen Camilla might have been fired from her job, but money wasn’t a problem. She explained that she was still very confident and carefree, which all stemmed from her childhood.

“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.”

Queen Camilla met Charles before marrying Andrew Parker Bowles

In her 20s, she found love. Queen Camilla married her first husband, British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, in 1973, but what closed in on her as the years went by would alter her life forever.

Just a year before she tied the knot with Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla had met then-Prince Charles for the first time at a polo match.

In Charles and Camilla Portrait of a Love Affair, author Gyles Brandreth claims that Charles and Camilla were introduced by their mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz, the daughter of the Chilean ambassador.

The couple dated for a while but stopped when Charles left to serve in the Royal Navy. By the time he returned, Camilla was involved and engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.

Charles and Andrew played together on the same polo team when younger; in fact, Andrew dated Princess Anne in the early 1970s, and their relationship remained strong. Camilla, meanwhile, maintained a close and friendly relationship with Charles after they first met. Back then, the king had started dating 16-year-old Diana Spencer, and we know how that story would go on to develop.

When Diana was introduced to the Bowles couple, Camilla thought the young lady was “sweet and cute” and approved of her.

At first, Diana and Camilla got along well. But things soon grew uncomfortable.

Queen Camilla & King Charles – ‘Tampongate’

“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,” Diana explained in the book Diana: In Her Own Words.

According to Charles’ authorized biography, as quoted by Town & Country, Charles and Camilla’s affair started in 1986. Charles was still married to Princess Diana at that point. She found out about it – and confronted Camilla.

Things for Charles and Diana continued as usual, at least from the public’s perspective. But it wasn’t long before the couple’s fairytale life was over.

In 1992, the couple announced their separation, though both continued with their official royal duties. Four years later, in August of 1996, they reached a final agreement for the divorce.

By that stage, things had already reached the ears of the public regarding Charles’ relationship with Camilla. And what happened in December 1989 pretty much confirmed that they had actually been having an affair for years. Tampongate became a a huge scandal, and Queen Camilla was at the center of the story.

Speaking with OK Magazine, royal expert Angela Levin, author of the 2022 book Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: A Royal Survivor, Camilla had to endure “torrents” of mistreatment from the public as the affair was revealed. According to Levin, she was pretty much forced to spend most of her time at her home to avoid any backlash from the public.

“It was very difficult for her”

Moreover, the expert claims Camilla was afraid of going out shopping or visiting stores. Instead, she had to send her friends to do her errands.

“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,” Levin said.

Levin went on: “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.”

Camilla became increasingly popular among the public as the years went by. Even so, Levin suspects she “must still bear the scars of it all.”

While Camilla endured harsh treatment from the public and media for many years, she luckily made it to the other side. These days the queen consort has become one of the most popular Royal Family members. In the last year, she has been praised for how she took on a lot of responsibilities while her husband, King Charles, recovered from cancer.

In just a few weeks, the king and queen will embark on their first major overseas trip, which will be a tour to Australia and Samoa for a meeting with the Commonwealth heads of government. Hopefully, Camilla will be greeted with the same love she’s gotten in the UK.

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