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Charles, Camilla have children's blessing
The children are very happy for the couple and wished them all the luck in the future.
Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles have many things in common - a love of art, hunting, and strolls in the countryside. They also both have two children from previous marriages, and in each pair there is a wild child and an obedient one.
Prince William, Charles' eldest son and the third in line to the throne, is considered a model royal - dashing, poised, and famously responsible.
By contrast, Prince Harry's most memorable recent moments in the spotlight have been for smoking pot, punching a paparazzi, and wearing a swastika armband to a party.
A similar dynamic appears to be at work among Camilla's children. Her son Tom, now 30 and working as a food writer for Tatler magazine, was caught snorting cocaine at a London party in 1999, and four years earlier found to be carrying cannabis and ecstasy while studying at Oxford. Charles, the boy's godfather, reportedly telephoned Tom and gave him an angry scolding about such scandals. Parker Bowles' daughter, Laura, 26, was far easier to raise. Often described as "levelheaded," she now manages a shop in London's highbrow Belgravia neighborhood. Her boyfriend, former Calvin Klein model Harry Lopes, is a grandson of the late Lord Astor of Hever.
After the marriage, the two pairs of children will be step-siblings - but not fellow royals. When Camilla becomes Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, her children will remain private citizens.
If there is one thing that seems to unify all four children, they have publicly supported the upcoming wedding of Charles and Camilla. Tom and William will both act as official witnesses at the wedding. Princes William, 22, and Harry, 20, recently issued a brief statement supporting the marriage. "We are both very happy for our father and Camilla, and we wish them all the luck in the future," they said.
That surprised some Britons, given how often the boys' mother, the late Princess Diana, had blamed Charles' long affair with Camilla for the destruction of her marriage.
The British media also have speculated that Harry, who was especially close to Diana, cannot forgive Camilla for making his late mother's life miserable. Diana famously described Camilla as the "third person" in her marriage and the "Rottweiler." But the 56-year-old Charles, who appears to have a close relationship with both his sons, clearly worked hard to persuade them to welcome Camilla as their stepmother, nearly eight years after Diana died in a car crash in Paris.
Those efforts seem to have helped nurture a positive relationship between Camilla and the princes.
For some time after Diana's death, public sympathy in Britain was very much pro-Diana and anti-Charles, and his relationship with Camilla was kept low key.
But in August 1999, Charles brought his longtime love along when he took a 10-day cruise around the Aegean with William and Harry aboard the yacht of Greek billionaire John Latsis. In February 2001, Charles, William and Camilla attended their first official function together, a party to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the newspaper watchdog, The Press Complaints commission.
During the Golden Jubilee ceremonies in 2002, celebrating the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II, a spectacular pop concert was held on the grounds of Buckingham Palace - and Charles, Camilla and the two princes attended it together.
Charles and Camilla reportedly told Princes William and Harry about their planned marriage over the Christmas holidays, before announcing their engagement to the public.
