Camilla, Queen (1947-…), is the wife of Charles III, the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Before her husband became king, she was known as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Camilla Rosemary Shand was born on July 17, 1947, in London. She was educated at Queen’s Gate School in England and at finishing schools in Switzerland and France. She and Prince Charles met in the early 1970’s and became close friends.
In 1973, Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, an officer in the British military. They had two children—Tom, born in 1974, and Laura, born in 1979. The couple divorced in 1995.
Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. In 1997, Diana died in an automobile accident.
Camilla and Charles remained close throughout their separate marriages and eventually began a romantic relationship. Knowledge of their affair became public in 1992, and Charles publicly acknowledged it in 1994. The couple faced widespread disapproval. In the late 1990’s, after both had been divorced, their continuing relationship began to receive public acceptance. The couple married on April 9, 2005. Upon her marriage to Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles became Camilla Mountbatten-Windsor, known as Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall.
Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died on Sept. 8, 2022. Charles became King Charles III. Camilla then became queen consort (wife of the king). After Charles’s coronation on May 6, 2023, Camilla was, on the same day, crowned queen and became known as Queen Camilla.
