A Look Back At Princess Anne's Complicated Romance With Queen Camilla's Ex-Husband
Before Queen Camilla married King Charles in 2005, she was married to Andrew Parker Bowles from 1973–1995. Similarly, Anne, Princess Royal, has also been married twice. Like Camilla, Anne's first nuptials occurred in 1973, with her marriage to Captain Mark Phillips ending in 1992. Months later, Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence got married in Scotland, and their bond remains strong over 30 years later.
Royal social circles can sometimes be surprisingly small, increasing the likelihood of having friends, or even romantic partners, in common. Such is the case with Anne and her sister-in-law, Camilla. Before Camilla and Andrew married, he had a relationship with Anne. According to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, Anne and Andrew's romance began in 1970. Camilla and Andrew had first met five years earlier. Reportedly, while they started dating in 1966, it wasn't an exclusive relationship.
Anne's a lifelong horse enthusiast, and many of her early romantic partners shared this interest. In Andrew's case, he served in the Royal Horse Guards. "Andrew ... was a serious contender," Brian Hoey, Anne's official biographer, theorized in the documentary "Princess Anne — What We Never Knew About The 7 Loves of Her Life." "His relationship with the royal family goes back so far he was actually in the procession at [Queen Elizabeth's] coronation." However, not everyone was so convinced about the longevity of Anne and Andrew's relationship.
Anne & Andrew's relationship is sometimes linked with Charles & Camilla's early romance
Despite his common ground with the royal family, one major piece of legislation would have complicated the bond between Anne, Princess Royal, and Andrew Parker Bowles. Andrew was Catholic, and, at the time, the Act of Settlement of 1701 prohibited Catholics or people married to Catholics from becoming the monarch. Although Anne was behind her three brothers in the line of succession, some believe that this restriction would have been a dealbreaker for the relationship.
Even so, some royal experts have hypothesized that Anne was feeling rebellious and looking to have a good time dating. "It's unclear when [Anne and Andrew's] romance wound down, but Anne had no shortage of young men interested in her, among them Mark Phillips, whom she first met in 1968," royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith informed Elle. This murky timeline has generated speculation as to whether Anne and Andrew were together when Charles and Camilla started dating. "It was thought that when [Andrew] cheated on Camilla with Princess Anne, that Camilla decided to get a bit of revenge, and that was when she actually started up her own relationship with Prince Charles," Victoria Howard, editor of The Crown Chronicles, explained in "Princess Anne — What We Never Knew About The 7 Loves of Her Life."
These intersecting relationships were depicted in Netflix's drama "The Crown." However, Smith refutes this idea, asserting that Anne and Andrew's relationship concluded before Charles and Camilla started dating in 1972.
Anne and Andrew have an enduring friendship
While Anne, Princess Royal, and Andrew Parker Bowles' dating days were relatively short-lived, they've continued to spend time together over the decades. Royal author Tom Quinn surmised that Anne decided that she and Andrew were more compatible as friends rather than romantic partners. Anne and Andrew's enthusiasm for horses hasn't diminished with time, and they hang out together at annual events like the Cheltenham Races and Royal Ascot. As further evidence of their friendship, when her second child, Zara Tindall, was born, Anne asked Andrew to be one of Zara's godparents. An equestrian herself, Zara often joins her mom and godfather at these horseracing events.
Unfortunately, Anne and Andrew's lasting connection caused some difficulty towards the end of Anne's first marriage to Captain Mark Phillips. Before Anne and Phillips separated in 1989, it was rumored that Anne was having an affair with her friend Andrew. Phillips himself was also believed to have had affairs of his own during his marriage to Anne.
However, these rumors didn't quash Andrew and Anne's friendship, and, while Anne's relationship with Queen Camilla has sometimes been complicated over the years, the two women have also developed a bond. They've displayed a friendly camaraderie at royal events and even had fun bantering about their portrayal as romantic competitors in "The Crown."