Before Prince Charles married Princess Diana (then Diana Spencer) in 1981, he was apparently already smitten with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles (then Camilla Shand).
Answer: The big reason Prince Charles and Camilla Shand, as she was then known, didn't get married in the early 1970s: He never asked her.
In 1993, an intimate phone call between Charles and Camilla leaked, causing a huge scandal. In the years that followed, both divorced their partners. A year after Diana's death in 1997, Charles and Camilla made their relationship public and eventually got married in 2005.
1970: Charles and Camilla meet
Camilla Shand was 23 when she met the eligible British heir, 22, at a polo match in 1970, just one year after Charles' investiture as the Prince of Wales.
Camilla wasn't considered a suitable match for the Prince of Wales. Prince Charles and Camilla at a polo match in 1975. Even if Charles had wanted to settle down, he would have encountered those with serious doubts about whether Camilla was an appropriate bride for the heir to the throne.
The duke recalls meeting Camilla, whom he and his brother called “the other woman,” for the first time, and notes that it was far from a pleasant experience for him. He described their introduction as an “injection,” for which he had to brace himself.
Before Prince Charles married Princess Diana (then Diana Spencer) in 1981, he was apparently already smitten with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles (then Camilla Shand).
It was generally known that Camilla was in love with Andrew Parker Bowles and wanted to marry him. But no one took the romance between Charles and Camilla seriously.
Charles and Camilla were both attendees at the event, marrying a day later. The Duke of Sussex also confirmed press speculation that the Queen hadn't wanted to give Charles and Camilla permission to marry, even though she did give the pair her blessing.
The Queen thought Diana quite suitable for Charles. “She was very much a hit with the royal family—they really warmed to her,” Chernock says. “Diana worked very, very hard to ingratiate herself and to model what she thought being a princess would entail, and she did it very successfully.”
Cosmopolitan UK reported earlier this year that Elizabeth chose not to attend her Charles' nuptials because she was the head of the Church of England, which long disapproved of remarriages. The queen opted not to attend the wedding to upload the Church's values, the magazine added.
Diana was initially friendly with Camilla—until she found out about her relationship with Charles. Before that uncomfortable lunch, Camilla and Diana got along relatively well while the princess and Prince Charles were courting in 1980.
In the early years of Charles' relationship with her, the queen reportedly regarded Camilla with caution. That grew to a total distancing following Diana's death, but the queen began warming up toward her in the later years of her life. "The queen always detested Camilla," Andersen said.
"One of the most shocking things that Diana told me was that the night before the wedding, Charles told her that he didn't love her," Thornton said. "I think Charles didn't want to go into the wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her, and it was devastating for Diana."
But throughout Princess Diana and the then Prince of Wales's 20-year odyssey, there were moments of real affection, no matter how fleeting. “We fell in love gradually,” Princess Diana told biographer Andrew Morton. “It wasn't really dramatic. One blink and it would have gone.”
It is thought the Duchess of Cambridge refers to the Queen as 'Mama'.
Does Prince William have to bow to King Charles? There's a new protocol for King Charles's sons and daughters-in-law, Hello! explains. Whenever they first acknowledge the king, Prince William and Prince Harry will be bow, while Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle will be required to curtsy.
Sweet. Despite the fact Queen Elizabeth II was officially called 'Ma'am' or 'Your Majesty' to the majority of people, Prince William and Prince Harry were let off the hook when it came to the Queen, and were always encouraged to call her 'Granny'.
On top of being a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and step-grandmother, Queen Consort Camilla also contributes a lot to charity. Since marrying Charles in 2005, she has become patron or president of more than 90 charities.
According to several royal biographers and also The Crown, Charles wanted to marry Camilla but was steered away from her by the royal family, who didn't think she'd be a suitable wife largely thanks to the fact that she had a few ex-boyfriends and therefore was probably not a virgin.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl said Queen Elizabeth II once referred to Camilla as "that wicked woman." For years, the Queen refused to sanction Camilla and Charles' relationship after their affair. But Nicholl said Elizabeth eventually warmed to Camilla, naming her as the next Queen Consort.
But only one man has been called the "love of her life"—British Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan, whom Diana dated from 1995 to 1997.
James Colthurst met a young Princess Diana on a skiing trip, when she was only seventeen years old. The two became lifelong friends, and he played a vital role in the writing of Andrew Morton's book, Diana: Her True Story.
Although it is customary for guests to avoid any white clothing to prevent upstaging the bride, Camilla's mother-in-law the Queen waived this rule and stepped out in a stunning pale ensemble as she attended the latter with her late husband Prince Philip.