THE REAL AND LITTLE KNOWN STORY OF THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN PRINCESS DIANA AND CAMILLA
Before the days when "there were three of us in this marriage," Camilla Parker Bowles and Princess Diana were good friends.
The complicated love triangle between the late Diana of Wales, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall (then Camilla Parker Bowles) is one of the main plots of the new series of The Crown, and one that will undoubtedly prove gripping. However, while the two women have often been portrayed as rivals for Carlos's affection, the true story of their relationship is much more nuanced.
After dating Camilla before her marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles, it is said that Carlos had an affair with her until 1980. Also, that Andrew (who had several lovers) knew and even approved of the relationship. But then Carlos's romance with Diana came.
In the Duchess of Cornwall's biography, The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair that Rocked the Crown, Penny Junor recounts that Diana often visited Camilla and Andrew's country home, Bolehyde Manor in Wiltshire, when she started dating. with Carlos in 1980. At that time two women were getting along, including Diana helping Camilla with her children, Tom and Laura.
Camilla was 14 years older than Diana, so it is not surprising that the 19-year-old sought her out as a counselor. In fact, Camilla was closer to Diana's older sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, with whom Carlos also briefly dated. Junor says that Camilla took on the role of an older sister and claims that she was a support for Diana when they both went to see Prince Charles compete in the Ludlow races that year - a day that marked Charles and Diana's public debut as a couple. Unused to cameras, Camilla was certainly a reassuring presence.
Camilla maintained the friendship while Carlos and Diana's relationship became more serious. In Andrew Morton's 1992 book Diana: Her True Story, Morton relates that shortly after the couple announced their engagement in February 1981 and Diana moved into Clarence House, he found a note from Camilla on his bed inviting her to lunch. They are said to have enjoyed a lively gathering where they chatted and caught up. When Diana eventually looked back, she told Morton that she would later suspect that Camilla was trying to figure out when she could see Carlos alone.
It was around this time that the friendship between the two women began to break down. Morton says that Diana began to harbor suspicions about Carlos and Camilla already during their engagement. The bride-to-be was upset when she learned that Carlos had given Camilla a bracelet, shortly before the royal wedding scheduled for July. It was engraved with the initials G and F, which Diana was sure was a reference to the nicknames Carlos and Camilla were said to have given each other, "Gladys and Fred," in honor of two characters from The Goon Show. Others speculated that it meant "Girl Friday," an allusion no less disturbing, considering that the 1940 film His Girl Friday is about a man trying to drive his newly engaged ex-wife away from his new lover. Junor also writes about Diana's concerns, explaining that the newlywed princess was angered when she found a photo of Camilla in Charles's journal while the couple were on their honeymoon at the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Camilla stayed away from Diana in the early years of their marriage. PopSugar reported that he even avoided events that he knew the royal couple would attend. However, in the mid-eighties, Diana was convinced that Carlos had rekindled her relationship with her ex-girlfriend. Diana told Morton that she showed up unannounced to surprise Carlos and his friends at a birthday party for Camilla's sister Annabel Elliot in 1989. It was there that she shared her suspicions with Camilla, or at least clearly hinted at them. Diana recalled that when Camilla asked what more the princess could wish for besides public adoration and her beautiful children, Diana replied, "I want my husband."
The two women have since distanced themselves, and Carlos and Camilla continued their relationship when their marriage to Diana broke up. When Diana gave the interview on Panorama in 1995, she told the BBC's Martin Bashir: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," she had already discussed, behind closed doors and in the press. In fact, it was a year earlier, in 1994, when Carlos admitted her adultery in the interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, saying that the marriage had "irretrievably broken".
Diana's broken relationship with Carlos grew more amiable following their divorce in 1996, when the two sought to be friendly co-parents of young princes William and Harry. However, it has been published that the late princess was never fully reconciled with Camilla, who was criticized by the press and Diana's supporters, especially when the beloved princess was tragically killed in the famous 1997 car accident.
In the years since, many have recognized that attributing Carlos and Diana's marital problems solely to Camilla is an oversimplification. Diana was only a teenager when she met the heir to the throne, who was nearly 13 years her senior, and their characters weren't particularly compatible. In a gesture of respect towards the late princess, Carlos and Camilla waited until 2005 to finally marry, and the Duchess of Cornwall chose not to assume the title of "Princess of Wales".
Since then, she has shown not only support for Prince Charles but also for William and Harry, who adore their stepmother while still keeping Diana's spirit close. He is a diligent and beloved royal in his own right. It has overcome the narrative that saw the two rival women in love.
