To have warmed to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

[octonaught]

I am old enough to remember the Diana years really clearly, including Charles & Diana’s wedding.
At the time I thought Camilla was awful “there were 3 of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded” said Diana, the media minx.
All 3 players, Diana, Charles & Camilla were victims of the protocols of the time, ie the future Queen needed to basically be a Virgin, & Charles & Diana basically had an arranged marriage, which just didn’t work out, but due to their position they weren’t allowed to quietly go their separate ways.
Charles & Camilla have —officially— been together over 20 years. Camilla has kept her head down & they look like a very happy couple.

I don’t know about the political ramifications of Camilla being queen or not. But as a person, she seems ok.

I'm a Republican so would happily be shot of the lot of them, but I like Camilla. Infinitely more suited to the role than her predecessor.

I was a massive Diana fan but even so I thought at the time (when C&D split up) that the only way Charles could come out of it with any credibility would be if him and Camilla married and lived happily ever after. And they seem to be doing fine, she seems more suited to being a consort than Diana and the royal family seem to be evolving into something a bit more relevant to this century.

I don't get this debate about will she be queen. If she is married to the king surely she just is queen regardless of what honorifics they add to her name?

What an ignorant, offensive statement

In what way?

I don't get this debate about will she be queen. If she is married to the king surely she just is queen regardless of what honorifics they add to her name?

Exactly. They're hardly going to alter the constitution to appease a few over emotional Diana obsessives.

Diana also had a habit of pursuing married men.

Well Diana also had affairs by all accounts Vivienne but tbh it seems they were totally unsuited to each other but it was a different age Charles was expected to marry a virgin etc .

The whole "fertile young virgin of good stock" business feels so archaic now that it's hard to believe it was "only" 35 years ago.

i like her. she was lovely when she visited dd's sn school

I've never disliked her. Imagine if the wives of the men who had an affair with Diana were given a media platform and were able to talk about their anguish to the world?

I've read that she and Charles don't spend that much time together, as she prefers a more relaxed life at her own house with her children and grandchildren. And that she doesn't really like doing all the royal engagements ribbon cutting stuff. Which frankly all seems like fair payback for me for the period where she got to have all the 'fun' of being the OW behind the scenes and none of the responsibility.

I don't think she's an evil terrible person, but she did choose to become the OW. No one made her do that. Charles and Diana probably wouldn't have ended well anyway but it would have been better to leave well alone until that point. Charles is massively culpable in all this of course.

I'm sure she's spiffing fun, even when having an affair whilst married, with a married man. If anyone posted on here with that story she would rightly be ripped to shreds. Why is it ok for Camilla and Charles to have behaved so badly? I also think their actions contributed to Diana's mental state at the time.

How many of you would be warming to her if Diana had been your daughter?

To answer your question, I have not warmed to her at all.

One of the greatest PR successes of all time was turnaround in the public's attitude towards Camilla. Having said that she seems a very likeable person. It's arguable that there were three victims in the Charles/Diana/Camilla debacle. In any event it was a situation that was very personal to them and nobody else's business.

Charles should have married her in the first place and not be persuaded by the seniors in the royal family to have married Diana who was, IMO, treated by the royal family as nothing other than a poorly qualified, naive 18/19 year old who they could manipulate into being a baby machine and then discard when it suited them. She was very manipulative herself later but I think that was down to the media and others who manipulated her again into where they wanted her to be.

I am old enough to remember it all too and I remain on team Diana - she was treated appallingly and all praise to her for trying to single-handedly bring down the monarchy.

Yanbu. I am no royalist but people need to be happy and Camilla and Charles seem to be just doing their own thing. Good for them. I'd like him to abdicate but just looking at him you can see he's already rubbing his hands together at the prospect of being king.

"Eh? Prince Charles has a sister and 2 brothers. Not an only child!!"

It was sarcasm.

"Charles should have married her in the first place"-but she didn't want to marry him, did she?

He should have married in the first place but he didn't, probably because he was told that wasn't the right thing to do. The public wanted a meek and mild doe eyed princess. Princess Diana turned out to be a a lot stronger character than that and good for her.

I read extensively on this; nothing I have ever read has lead me to dislike Camilla.

The upper classes work in mysterious ways, have completely different values. Everything I've ever read, shows Andrew Parker Bowles was a complete womaniser, and it suited both him and Camilla, APB had affair after affair. But, it's not something that seems to bother the upper classes, they were a happy couple, he had his multiple interests, and she had her relationship.

Diana, product of a broken home, needy, attention seeking, personality disorder, how did she ever pass the bride test? Even her own Grandmother knew she was dysfunctional.

When Diana did that interview, ostensibly to justify her own adultery and vilify Charles, all she did was force APBs hand, he and Camilla had to agree to divorce so he (APB) could save face. Diana was no idiot, she knew she was savaging the Parker Bowles children's home life as well as her own childrens by going public. Those boys,having to watch that (pardon the pun) car crash of an interview in their headmasters office, where she's discussing her shags. That isn't a decent mother, it's an attention wh*re, much like some dope hanging her dirty washing out on todays social media. She just had a bigger platform to play the 'woe me'

Everyone else would have gone along quite happily with the status quo. Camilla and Charles would have stayed FWB, APB would have worked his way through his friends wives, Diana would have continued picking up and discarding playboys who saw her as a trophy.

I never quite get the Diana is a Saint malarky... Barry Manakee, James Hewitt, James Gilby, Will Carling, Hasnet Khan, Dodi Fayed ... and Oliver Hoare had a lucky escape but she tried her hardest to wreck that marriage too .....David Waterhouse was first her list of targets .

No spare me Diana, she might have looked good on the stamps, but she didn't have one bit of personal dignity about her.

Coming on here and calling either woman a whore is a bit trashy and sexist tbh. Men in these situations are never made out to be whores.

I remain of the opinion that Charles was telling the truth when he said he was true to his wedding vows (technically at least) "until it was clear that the marriage had irretrievably broken down". I have always suspected that the bit when he hesitated ("and I was, until... it was clear" etc) in the interview was him being too inhibited to say out loud "Diana cheated first". I kind of don't blame her if she did, mind you, as she was clearly unhappy and seemed to be reaching out for affection she felt denied in her marriage. Diana may also have been correct that Camilla was "in" the marriage in an emotional sense since Charles was still mooning after and in contact with her (the latter is proven, per cringeworthy intercepted messages) but, like many another straying husband, had convinced himself he was faithful because he hadn't actually stuck it in. It's most unlikely the objective truth will ever be known.

A few alternative facts on Andrew Parker Bowles - he was page to the Queen at her coronation, he was Princess Annes first boyfriend, he is Zara Philips godfather, Charles is Tom Parker Bowles (APB and Camillas son) godfather, APB still escorts Princess Anne when Capt Laurence is out of town (which is more often than not). Tom Parker Bowles in one of Williams closest friends.

These people are so enmeshed in each other lives.
As I said before, they live by different rules. And I bet they all often have dinner together!

All this said, I do have a massive soft spot for her (Diana). Only her and her children I thought were worthy Royals. She is conniving and whatever else but more power to elbow I say. Not sure who pointed it out upthread but these two were never suited from day dot.

I met her once at an event and she chatted to me for a couple of minutes. She was charming and really interested in what we were involved in. She seemed very genuine and made you feel very relaxed.

She seems like a jolly good sort to me.

Let s/he who is without sin cast the first stone, and all that.

Diana and Charles were a terrible match.

I’d rather Camilla than Saint Diana any day! Diana was attention seeking & should have been prevented by HER family into marrying prince Charles. They apparently knew what the score was but they didn’t stand by her did they?