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Camilla: The royal consort who gained official approval
Camilla Parker Bowles would be the unexceptional archetype of the tweed-wearing, horse-loving British country aristocrat were it not for one fact -- her three-decade-long love affair with Prince Charles, whom she is to marry on Saturday.
Camilla Parker Bowles would be the unexceptional archetype of the tweed-wearing, horse-loving British country aristocrat were it not for one fact -- her three-decade-long love affair with Prince Charles, whom she is to marry on Saturday.
Over recent years Parker Bowles has shaped a unique position in British public life as the semi-official consort of the heir to the throne, a role now -- finally -- being formalised.
Parker Bowles is viewed with ambivalence by the British public, who recognise the depth of her relationship with the prince but also largely blame her for the break-up of Charles's relationship with his first wife Princess Diana.
The hugely popular Diana, who was divorced from Charles in 1996, a year before her death in a Paris car accident, made it plain she viewed Camilla as the catalyst for her marriage break-up.
"There were three in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded," Diana famously commented.
Born Camilla Shand in London on July 17, 1947, Parker Bowles had a deeply traditional upbringing.
The granddaughter of Lord Ashcombe, she was educated in London, then finishing schools in Switzerland and France and spent her home life on a country estate in Sussex, southern England.
Self-confident and attractive, the young countrywoman first met Prince Charles at a polo match in the early 1970s, and they later became close, spending time at the prince's private apartments in Buckingham Palace.
However, believing Charles would never propose, she married army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, and the couple had two children.
Mutual feelings with the prince remained, nonetheless, with Charles allegedly continuing to see Parker Bowles even after his 1981 marriage to Diana.
The romance was fully rekindled later that decade as the royal marriage crumbled, something luridly chronicled in recorded phone conversations between Charles and Parker Bowles leaked to the press.
Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorced in 1995.
After Diana's death, Charles and Parker Bowles kept their relationship discreet, but it gradually became apparent they were effectively living together as man and wife.
Following months of careful planning, they couple made their first public appearance together in 1999 and since then have been public about their relationship.
Parker Bowles will be known as the Princess Consort, and not Queen Camilla, once Prince Charles becomes the British monarch, although she will legally be queen.
Immediately after the wedding on Saturday she will use the formal title Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, and avoid using another -- the Princess of Wales, a title that technically is hers but still symbolically belongs to Diana.
