Camilla, Queen Consort is Queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. Camilla became queen consort on 8 September 2022, upon the accession of her husband following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Camilla was raised in East Sussex and South Kensington in England and educated in England, Switzerland, and France. In 1973, she married British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, with whom she has two children. They divorced in 1995. Camilla and Charles were romantically involved periodically both before and during each of their first marriages. Their relationship was highly publicised in the media and attracted worldwide scrutiny. In 2005, Camilla married Charles in the Windsor Guildhall, which was followed by a televised Anglican blessing at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. From the marriage until her husband became king in 2022, she was known as the Duchess of Cornwall.
Camilla carries out public engagements representing the monarchy, often alongside her husband. She is also the patron, the president, or a member of numerous charities and organisations. Since 1994, Camilla has campaigned to raise awareness of osteoporosis, which has earned her several honours and awards. She has also raised awareness of issues such as rape, sexual abuse, literacy, animal welfare, and poverty.
Camilla’s great-grandmother was Alice Keppel, the mistress of Charles’s great-great-grandfather King Edward VII, and Camilla was brought up to be familiar with the world of royalty and Britain’s upper classes. She met Charles at a polo match in 1970, before either of them was married. Many in their circle expected Charles to propose to her, but in 1973 she married Andrew Parker Bowles, an army officer and a friend of Charles; they had two children and remained in the prince’s circle of friends. Camilla was a keen horsewoman and took part in rural gentry activities, including foxhunting (an activity made illegal in 2005). Her lifestyle survived largely unscathed when she was one of the “names” (investors) in Lloyd’s of London who lost money in a scandal that engulfed many of that company’s insurance underwriters in the 1980s.
Some years after her marriage, Camilla resumed her relationship with Charles. In 1995 she divorced Parker Bowles (who soon afterward married his own mistress). Diana, princess of Wales, whom Charles had married in 1981, blamed Camilla for the 1992 breakup of her marriage to Charles. Even though Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, it seemed unlikely that the prince would choose to offend public opinion by marrying Camilla. Following Diana’s death in 1997, however, Charles and Camilla began to appear together in public and gradually came to be accepted as a couple. When their engagement was announced on February 10, 2005, Queen Elizabeth II publicly bestowed her blessing.
