Everything The Royals Have Reportedly Said About King Charles And Queen Camilla's Relationship

It's no secret that King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort's relationship got off to a controversial start. The pair, who reportedly met back in 1970, embarked on an affair that lasted for many decades, and resumed despite Charles' marriage to Princess Diana. Camilla's life was never the same after meeting Charles, with the queen consort steadily becoming a contentious figure in the U.K. She was so disliked, in fact, that she was once hailed Britain's most loathed woman. "Camilla had been public enemy number one for much of the 1990s after Diana named her the third person in the marriage," royal author Penny Junor told Vanity Fair. "But by the time she and Charles married, I think some people's attitudes were beginning to soften, and the reception they had from the crowds in Windsor on the day of the wedding was almost entirely positive."

Though Charles and Camilla have, on occasion, made people uncomfortable with their interactions, they generally appear to be in a much better place these days. The British public would agree, with opinion polls ranking erstwhile villain Camilla highly. But how do their fellow royals feel about the legitimation of their once divisive relationship? Here's everything the royals have reportedly said about King Charles and Queen Camilla's relationship.

Princess Diana and King Charles III's marriage was toxic from the outset. In 1986, five years into the couple's marriage, Charles reportedly resumed his affair with long-time mistress Camilla, Queen Consort. Ultimately, Charles and Camilla couldn't hide their affair from Princess Diana, who soon confronted her love rival. 

In 1989, Diana made her feelings about the affair clear. "I said, 'I know what's going on between you and Charles, and I just want you to know that,'" Diana said, per biographer Andrew Morton's book "Diana: Her True Story." "She said to me: 'You've got everything you ever wanted. All the men in the world fall in love with you, and you've got two beautiful children, what more do you want?' So I said, 'I want my husband.'"

By 1994, the couple had separated and Charles publicly admitted to cheating on Diana. In her infamous interview with the BBC's Martin Bashir (transcribed by PBS), Diana spoke about Charles and Camilla's relationship with remarkable candor. She revealed that she had been keenly aware of the affair and the discovery led to an exacerbation of her bulimia. "By the change of behavioral pattern in my husband; for all sorts of reasons that a woman's instinct produces; you just know," she said. Later, she cited the difficulties of being unwittingly thrust into a throuple. "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," she mused.

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As one of the hardest working royals, Princess Anne rarely has time to sit down for interviews. However, according to royal insiders, she has privately made her feelings about King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort's relationship known. Notably, it was Anne who first united her brother with Camilla back in 1970, as the princess royal was dating Andrew Parker Bowles, who would go on to marry Camilla years later. Accordingly, when Charles wed Camilla in 2005, Anne allegedly left her sister-in-law petrified.

In 2021, an insider told New Idea that Anne found Camilla to be calculating, and suggested that she was using Charles to further her role in the royal family. "Anne has always found Camilla opportunistic and, with her and Prince Charles' roles being widened in 2021, she's really throwing her weight around," the source said. 

Moreover, Anne had allegedly confided in friends that Camilla was driving a wedge between herself and Charles, with the queen consort supposedly wanting to keep her husband all to herself. Of particular concern to Anne was the couple's proposals to modernize the monarchy, in which she has always been opposed. "It irks Anne that Camilla is having a say on this," the insider continued. "Anne also rarely gets any alone time with her brother either, because Camilla always intrudes. But Camilla wishes Anne would give her a chance and let go of the past."

For many years, Queen Elizabeth II was staunchly against King Charles III's relationship with Camilla, Queen Consort. According to Tom Bower's book "Rebel Prince: The Power, Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles," Elizabeth told Charles to break up with Camilla following Diana's 1995 interview with Martin Bashir, but he refused. As such, Elizabeth refused to invite Camilla to royal events long after both she and Charles had divorced their respective spouses.

When Charles finally confronted his mother over her aversion to his lady love, Elizabeth made her feelings clear, reportedly telling her son that she would never be able to forgive Camilla for getting with Charles so soon after his divorce. "I want nothing to do with her," said Elizabeth, who referred to Camilla as "that wicked woman."

As the years went on, Elizabeth's feelings toward Charles and Camilla's relationship softened. At the couple's wedding reception in 2005, Elizabeth, who didn't attend the ceremony, reportedly made a rather odd, metaphor-laden speech; she discussed the results of the Grand National before paying tribute to her son and his new wife. "I know you will all want to know who was the winner of the Grand National," she said. "It was Hedgehunter ... My son is home and dry with the woman he loves. They are now on the home straight; the happy couple are now in the winner's enclosure."

Much like his mother, King Charles III's father, Prince Philip, did not approve of his relationship with Camilla, Queen Consort. When Charles turned 50 in 1998, for instance, Philip did not show up to his son's birthday celebrations due to his deep disdain for Camilla.

In Ingrid Seward's book "Prince Philip Revealed: A Man of His Century," it's revealed that Philip was once close to Princess Diana and sided with her amid the drama with Charles. Accordingly, he tried his best — and perhaps more than any other royal — to get Charles to return to Diana. In a candid correspondence with Diana, Philip discussed his aversion to Charles and Camilla's relationship. "[Charles] was silly to risk everything with Camilla ... We never dreamed he might feel like leaving you for her," Philip wrote. "I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind leaving you for Camilla. Such a prospect never entered our heads."

Diana was grateful for her father-in-law's candor and the two discussed Charles' affair in a number of back-and-forth letters. However, when Philip conceded that Charles was wrong for having an affair with Camilla and Diana was also at fault for her own infidelity, the pair's relationship soon soured. In time, Philip also appeared more accepting of Charles and Camilla's relationship, with the queen consort telling The Australian Women's Weekly (via People) in 2022 that the late duke had been a prominent role model to her.

Queen Elizabeth II's beloved sister Princess Margaret led a tragic life. Famously, she was forbidden from marrying the man she loved, Captain Peter Townsend, because he was a divorcé. As such, she had sympathy for King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort, as they were caught up in an affair that ultimately led to marriage and, of course, the crown.

In the British documentary "Charles and Di: The Truth Behind Their Wedding," it was revealed that Margaret had some rather shrewd insights into Charles and Camilla's bond. While she was happy when Charles and Diana announced their engagement, Margaret was concerned about the specter of Camilla. "We're extremely relieved — but she [Camilla] has no intention of giving him up," the princess told a friend, seemingly prophesying that the two would ultimately end up together.

While Margaret reportedly rebuked Charles and Camilla's relationship in the early years, the princess didn't judge the two. In fact, she tried to play mediator between the star-crossed lovers and Elizabeth, asking that her sister give Camilla a chance. But Her Majesty refused. Recognizing the pain of Camilla being snubbed by the queen, it was Margaret who encouraged Charles to confront his mother over her open disdain for Camilla, though this, too, proved fruitless.

In 2001, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, was humiliated after falling for a sting operation by British tabloid News of the World. One of the paper's undercover reporters, Mazher Mahmood, pretended to be a sheik's assistant and subsequently duped Sophie into spilling royal tea.

When the topic of King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort's relationship came up, Sophie was surprisingly sympathetic to the pair's plight. At the time, Charles was faced with the dilemma of being unable to marry Camilla while a working royal, since both he and Camilla were divorcés. Marrying Camilla would be in opposition to the rules of the Church of England, over which the monarch of the United Kingdom reigns. "It's a very difficult situation," Sophie said, per The Guardian. "On the one hand there's no reason why she shouldn't be accepted because he's divorced and she's divorced, but then again you've got issues of the monarch being the head of the Church." 

However, she also saw the Queen Mother's side to the story — who was notorious for her hatred of Camilla and Queen Elizabeth II promised that she would never allow Charles and Camilla to marry as long as her mother was alive. "I think it's hard, especially while Queen Elizabeth is alive, the Queen Mother," Sophie reflected. The following year, the Church of England scrapped its policy preventing royal divorcés from tying the knot.

In his 2023 memoir, "Spare," Prince Harry made no secret of his feelings toward King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort's relationship. Though Harry was angry over his father's extramarital affair, he said he'd forgive him if he didn't marry Camilla, whom he feared would be an evil stepmother. "All that we asked in return was that he did not marry her. 'You do not need to remarry,' we begged him," he wrote. "A wedding would ... make the whole country, the whole world, compare our mother and Camilla, something that nobody wanted." He accused Camilla of being highly calculated, apparently using her marriage to Charles to further her role within the royal family.

Discussing his memoir with "Good Morning America" in 2023, Harry admitted that he'd always viewed Camilla as a third wheel, an interloper in his parents' marriage, but acknowledged that such a position must have been difficult for her. "I have a huge amount of compassion for her, you know, being the third person within my parents' marriage," he said. "And she had a reputation or an image to rehabilitate."

Speaking to The Times (via The Telegraph), Camilla's friend, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, said that she was upset by Harry's claims. "Of course it hurts. But she doesn't let it get to her," she said. "Her philosophy is always, 'Don't make a thing of it and it will settle down — least said, soonest mended.'"

When Prince William was a young boy, King Charles III asked him how he would feel about his relationship with Camilla, Queen Consort, entering the spotlight. "Whatever makes you happy, Papa," reportedly came William's reply, per Vanity Fair. But William's brother Prince Harry tells an entirely different story.

According to Harry's memoir, a young William had expressed concerns that his father was cheating on his mother with Camilla. "Willy long harbored suspicions about the Other Woman, which confused him, tormented him, and when those suspicions were confirmed he felt tremendous guilt for having done nothing, said nothing, sooner," he wrote. During an appearance on "60 Minutes" in 2023, Harry claimed that he and William told their father not to marry Camilla. "We didn't think it was necessary," he said. "We thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good, and that if he was now with his person, that surely that's enough."

Since then, William and Camilla's relationship has improved, and he now appears accepting of the queen consort's marriage to his father. In 2022, an insider told the Daily Mail that William has conceded that Camilla makes his father happy. There is still one aspect of Camilla and Charles' relationship that William reportedly cannot accept, however. "William has made it clear that Camilla is the wife of his father, but not a step-grandmother to his children," Angela Levin revealed in her book "Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort."

Due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew remains one of the most controversial royals. It comes as little surprise, then, that he holds a nefarious position in this rundown. Truth be told, Andrew and Camilla, Queen Camilla, have never gotten along. The beef apparently began when Andrew refused to show solidarity with a pilloried Camilla and King Charles III.

As for Andrew's reported thoughts on Camilla? They're as unhinged as one might expect from the problem prince. According to Angela Levin's book "Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: From Outcast to Queen Consort," Andrew, desperate for the throne, began a duplicitous campaign against Camilla and Charles. One day, Queen Elizabeth II asked Andrew what his thoughts were on Charles potentially marrying Camilla. "He tried to persuade the Queen to block Charles marrying Camilla by being quite poisonous, mean, unhelpful and very nasty about Camilla," an insider told Levin. Of course, Andrew's plan didn't come to fruition and his brother and loathed sister-in-law did marry and ascend the throne. Then again, had Andrew been successful in succeeding the crown one can't help but wonder if he'd ultimately be forced to abdicate over his checkered past.

In private, Charles later expressed regret over his feud with Andrew. "Andrew wanted to be me," he told his confidant, Mark Bolland, per "Rebel Prince: The Power, Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles." "I should have let him work with me. Now he's unhelpful."

Sarah Ferguson hasn't had the best relationship with the royals. Infamously, her various indiscretions — including getting snapped in a compromising position with a Texan tycoon and falling for yet another of Mazher Mahmood's sting operations — led Princess Margaret to decry (via the Daily Mail), "You have done more to bring shame on the royal family than could ever have been imagined." Due to her close friendship with Princess Diana, Ferguson once considered Camilla, Queen Consort, one of her royal enemies.

This animosity came to a head in 2018. The pair allegedly got into a huge fight at Balmoral, with Ferguson apparently yelling at Camilla over her affair with Charles. "It seems that Fergie has never really confronted Camilla over the pain and heartache she caused Diana over her affair with Charles," a source told New Idea. "Fergie and Diana were close friends and she saw first-hand the anxiety and depression that [Camilla and Charles'] affair brought to her — and it's always churned away inside Fergie." Of course, it takes two to tango, so it appears somewhat unfair that Ferguson's ire is seemingly directed solely at Camilla.

But since Queen Elizabeth II's death, Sarah Ferguson has slowly made a comeback to public life, and thus expressed her support for Charles and Camilla. "I'm very supportive of the King and the Queen Consort, and I really am glad to do whatever it takes to support them on their road ahead," she told People in 2023.