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Even before King Charles III’s accession to the throne, the public kept its eyes focused on Queen Camilla. She had become one of the most controversial figures to join the British royal family. Before marrying King Charles III on April 9, 2005, Charles and Camilla met in 1970 at a polo match. According to Britannica, many people in their circle of friends assumed that Charles would propose to Camilla. But after they broke up, in 1973 the then-25-year-old Camilla wed British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles.
The couple had two children together, but eventually divorced in 1995. Throughout the course of their first marriages, King Charles III and Camilla continued their romantic connection. According to NBC News, in the 1990s, the public blamed Camilla for the devastating end of Princess Diana and Charles’s marriage. The British tabloids often referred to Camilla as the “third person” in Diana and Charles’ relationship. She was even regarded as one of, if not the, “most hated woman in Britain.”
Amid the controversy that surrounded Camilla’s marriage to Charles, she had plenty of support in the form of her siblings: her sister Annabel Elliot and brother Mark Shand.
Born Camilla Rosemary Shand on July 17, 1947, the now queen is the daughter of Major Bruce Middleton Hope Shand and the Hon. Rosalind Maud Shand. The three Shand children reportedly grew up in an unusually down-to-earth environment, despite their parents being part of the elite in Britain. Camilla’s father was Vice Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex and a wine merchant while her mother came from a wealthy family. They lived in a seven-bedroom country estate home in Plumpton, Sussex, called The Laines. Camilla studied at a prestigious local school before attending finishing school in Switzerland and France.
Read on to learn more about her childhood and how she was badly affected by the untimely passing of one of her beloved siblings.
