On February 6, 1981, when Carlo asked her hand, Diana hadn’t the faintest idea that Camilla Parker Bowles is the lover of her future husband. For ten years already. In fact, Carlo and Camilla had an affair (whose Elizabeth II strongly opposed) since 1971. And they continued dating in secret even after Camilla married the army officer in 1973 Andrew Parker Bowles, with whom she had two children (and from whom she divorced in 1995).
Diana would soon find out that her marriage to Carlo was “too crowded”. Ma at the start, as the fourth season of The Crown, she was convinced that Camilla was her friend. A famous photo (see above) portrays them together with the Ludlow horse racing in which Prince Charles competed. On that day, it was January 1980, the heir to the throne and Lady D made their debut as a couple. At the time the nineteen year old Diana, as Andrew Morton explained in the 1992 book Diana: Her True Story, he saw in the thirty-three years old Camilla “A councilor, a reassuring presence, an older sister “. Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles lived in one country estate at Bolehyde Manor, Wiltshire. Carlo and Diana were often their guests. And the future princess was very fond of their children, Laura and Tom, at the time 2 and 6 years.
On February 24, 1981, Buckhingham Palace announced the engagement of Charles and Diana. The future princess had just moved to Clarence House when Camilla sent her a letter: “I’ve read the exciting news about the engagement. Let’s have lunch together when does the prince of Wales go to Australia and New Zealand? He’s out for three weeks. I’d like to see the ring. Much love, Camilla ». Diana, as Andrew Morton recalls in his book on the late princess, was delighted: “I thought “Wow!” and I organized lunch“. Between a chat and the other “Camilla asked me:”You will not go hunting when you are in the Highgrove country house, right? ”. I said, “No”. She replied: “Ok, just out of curiosity” ». Camilla actually he was trying to understand what Lady D’s habits were in order to schedule her secret meetings with Carlo in Wiltshire. A shadow of suspicion flashed in Diana’s mind: “But I was still too immature to grasp all the messages that came to me».
The truth would only be discovered a few months later. Finding, just on the eve of wedding with the heir to the throne (celebrated on 29 July 1981) a bracelet, a gift from Carlo to his lover, on which the prince had had the letters engraved «G» e «F». That is the initials of “Gladys” and “Fred”, nicknames with which Carlo and Camilla have always used to call each other in intimacy.
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