Princess Diana's Shady Nickname For Camilla Was Totally Cutthroat

During her 1995 "Panorama" interview with Martin Bashir, Princess Diana infamously intoned: "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." With that, she made it clear that then-Prince Charles hadn't been faithful throughout their contentious relationship, and despite the fact that he and Camilla Parker Bowles remain happily together to this day, the repercussions are still being felt. Prince Harry's royal beef with Camilla continues apace, showing no signs of slowing down not least because he and wife Meghan Markle remain largely estranged from the rest of the family. Meanwhile, although Prince William's relationship with Queen Camilla is very different to Harry's, evidently certain wounds will never fully heal.

Unsurprisingly, the People's Princess and her love rival had little time for each other when everything was initially unraveling between the trio. In fact, according to royal expert and biographer Christopher Andersen, the warring women even had unflattering nicknames for each other back in the day. "Diana called Camilla 'the Rottweiler,' and Camilla's nickname for Diana was 'Barbie,'" he informed Fox News Digital. As a result, Camilla wasn't too keen on taking up the Princess of Wales moniker following Diana's death, once she and Charles married and made things official. However, the late Queen Elizabeth II made it clear that her son's former mistress was a member of their family when she bestowed the title of Queen Consort on Camilla.

Camilla Parker Bowles has had a long road from the most hated woman in Britain, widely considered responsible for the breakup of Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles' marriage along with the beloved royal's untimely death, to Queen Camilla. According to a Statista poll citing data from October 2023 to February 2024, 50% of Britons held a positive opinion of her. In October 2019, just 40% liked Camilla, so the queen consort's growth is impressive especially given everything that occurred with Megxit and the Sussexes' subsequent tell-all interviews and, in Prince Harry's case, bestselling book. Just a couple of months later, her popularity soared even further as Camilla stepped in for King Charles III amid his ongoing cancer treatment.

Queen Elizabeth II confirmed just six months before she passed away that she wanted Camilla to serve as Britain's queen consort, paving the way for Charles' longtime partner to finally gain a spot in the hearts of her constituents. As royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams explained to Express, Camilla gradually became an anchor for Britons during a particularly difficult time for the royal family.

As he pointed out, "These are tough times with the king undergoing treatment for cancer, but she has been tested before, enduring persistent criticism from supporters of Diana whilst maintaining a dignified silence." Fitzillwiams also argued, "It is her good humor and reliability as well as the support she gives the king during this uncertain time, which make her contribution invaluable."

Even decades after her death, Princess Diana is still haunting Queen Camilla. During an appearance on "Good Morning Britain," royal expert Jack Royston confirmed that, as YouGov polls that were conducted at the time demonstrated, "People in the 1990s took Diana's side in this dispute and actually the younger generations growing up now feel just as strongly I think as people did back then," (via Newsweek). Suffice it to say that the future queen consort was considered the villain, even more so than King Charles III who confessed to their affair just a couple of years before Diana's "Panorama" interview.

However, according to royal biographer Penny Junor's book "The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the Crown," he probably should've got a bit more flak since Charles actively discouraged Diana's suspicions about his relationship with Camilla, even neglecting to inform her that they were previously an item. Apparently, the future king finally told Diana the truth after proposing to her, reassuring Diana that they were no longer close. Even worse, Andrew Morton's biography "Diana: Her True Story — In Her Own Words" detailed how Camilla invited Diana to lunch to probe her about Charles.

As Morton recalled, "Camilla kept asking if Diana was going to hunt when she moved to Highgrove. Nonplussed by such an odd question, Diana replied in the negative. The relief on Camilla's face was clear. Diana later realized that Camilla saw Charles's love of hunting as a conduit to maintaining her own relationship with him." As a result, it's unsurprising the People's Princess had so little time for Camilla.