The relationship between the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles, and Camilla, has been one of the most controversial royal affairs for the past decades. Their relationship has been seen as both a true love story fighting against adversity or as a plain deceitful affair that hurt third people in that obsession to be together, being one of them the People’s Princess, Diana Spencer.
All in all, when talking about this matter, the story centers on a love triangle, mainly after Diana’s declaration about there being three people involved in the marriage. However, it’s often forgotten that there was a fourth person involved, Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s first husband. Who is he?
The Parker Bowles Family background
Andrew Parker Bowles was born on 27 December 1939, to a wealthy family highly acquainted with the royal family. His parents, were very close friends to the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, to the point that young Andrew even served as a page in Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.
The Parker Bowles had aristocratic blood, being descendants of Tomas Parker, the 6th Earl of Macclesfield, and Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 4th Baronet. That’s why the family had always been acquainted with the Royal Family. It’s said that the Queen Mother served as godmother in Andrew’s christening.
Military career
From a very young age, it was determined that Andrew was going to follow a military career. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the same academy where Prince William and Prince Harry developed their military careers. Andrew served in the Royal army for 34 years reaching the status of brigadier. He was once awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for his work in Zimbabwe.
Relationship with Camilla Shand
Let’s go to the part that people are more interested in, his relationship with the now Duchess of Cornwall. Andrew and Camilla met in 1965 and soon started an on-and-off relationship that lasted seven years. Although Camilla and Andrew loved each other, none of them were loyal to the relationship. While Camilla eventually met Charles and started dating him, Andrew was also constantly having affairs, mainly with Camilla’s close friends (and, as we will see, even with Charles’ sister, Princess Anne).
Long story short, after seven years, both families, the Shands and the Parker Bowles decided the couple needed some pressure to formalize their relationship. Unlike what we’ve seen in series like The Crown, it wasn’t the Royal Family the one that plotted to separate Charles and Camilla (although it was clear that they didn’t consider Camilla to be worthy of becoming the wife of the heir to the crown), but actually Camilla’s and Andrew’s family. But we’ll delve into that later on.
Affair with Princess Anne
While Andrew and Camilla were on their on-and-off relationship, Andrew did date Princess Anne, making their story a strange family jumble. They had met constantly throughout their lives through the ties with their families. However, Anne and Andrew met again in the summer of 1970 and started a relationship that went on for several years.
Now, even if they liked each other or even if there was love involved, their relationship didn’t have much future mainly because Andrew was a Catholic and Anne is the daughter of the head of the Church of England. Still, they carried out their relationship for some time. This happened during one of the many breaks Andrew and Camilla had and while she was dating Charles.
The relationship ended a bit before his engagement with Camilla was announced, and it’s been reported that after Princess Anne’s divorce in 1992, she had an affair with Andrew, although this remains speculation. What is known is that they remained really good friends afterward to the point that they are still seen as very friendly at some Royal events. Both share a huge passion for horses which might be what’s kept their friendship strong throughout the years. Andrew is the godfather of Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall.
The wedding of the year
Let’s go back to Camilla. As we mentioned, their families were keen to push Andrew and Camilla into marriage, and the only way they thought would force them was to announce their marriage without them knowing in The Times.
The couple was married in the summer of 1973 in a Catholic ceremony in London. Some of the royals who attended the wedding were Princess Anne, Princess Margaret, and of course, the Queen Mother. Something true is that while all this was happening, Prince Charles was transferred with the Navy to the Caribbean, but it wasn’t part of a scheming plot against his relationship with Camilla.
Camilla and Andrew had two children, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles. The relationship with the Prince of Wales remained friendly to the people’s eyes to the point that he was chosen as the godfather of Tom.
Camilla and Andrew’s divorce
Being a forced marriage, we can say they never had a very happy relationship. In 1995, the couple announced their divorce, though they never stated what was the reason behind it. Andrew simply declared that they had always had different interests, and in the last years of the marriage they had led separate lives.
In 1996, Andrew married Rosemary Pitman with whom he stayed happily married until 2010 when she passed of cancer complications. After Charle’s divorce from Princess Diana, he and Camilla started seeing each other once again, although they never made their relationship official, especially after the death of Diana in 1997.
In 2005, almost a decade after the tragedy, it was announced that Camilla and Prince Charles were engaged. He gave her a diamond ring that had been given to the Queen Mother when Elizabeth was born; they married later that year.
As for Andrew, he’s kept a private life ever since although he still attends some Royal events where he’s often seen next to Princess Anne.
Photos from: EFE / Wikimedia Commons
