hERE ARE 12 surprising things you didn’t know about the Queen Consort Camilla


Camilla, the Queen Consort’s parents, Bruce and Rosalind Shand, were wealthy aristocrats.

British Army officer Major Bruce Shand and Rosalind Cubitt on their wedding day in 1946.
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Camilla’s father was a major in the British Army and heir to his father’s baronry. Her mother, having been named “debutante of the year” in 1939, worked at an adoption agency and did charity work. They married in 1946.

Camilla came from an upper-class family with royal connections.

Bridesmaids Camilla (front row, left) and Annabel Shand (front row, right) at the wedding of Jeremy Cubitt and Diana du Cane in 1952.
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Four-year-old Camilla is pictured front left at the wedding of Jeremy Cubitt and Diana du Cane. She was a bridesmaid with her sister, Annabel.

Their great-grandmother Alice Keppel was the mistress of Charles’ great-great-grandfather, King Edward VII.

Camilla is the oldest of three children.

Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, with her sister, Annabel Elliot, and her brother, Mark Shand, in 2010.
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Her sister, Annabel Elliot, is an interior designer. She helped the royal couple redesign their Restormel Manor in Cornwall.

Her brother Mark, who died of a tragic head injury in 2014, was a travel writer.

She was married to Andrew Parker Bowles from 1973 to 1995.

Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles on their wedding day in 1973.
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Her now-ex-husband was an officer in the British Army and dated Princess Anne for a short time in 1970. A fictionalized version of Parker Bowles, played by Andrew Buchan, appeared on season three of “The Crown” on Netflix.

According to Sally Bedell Smith’s 2017 biography of King Charles, he and Camilla reportedly began their affair in 1986.

Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorced in 1995, a year before Charles’ divorce from Princess Diana.

She has two children from her previous marriage, Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes.

Charles, then Prince of Wales, and Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, with their children Prince Harry, Prince William, Tom Parker Bowles, and Laura Lopes.
Anwar Hussein Collection/ROTA/WireImage

Tom is a cookbook author and restaurant critic, while Laura works as an art curator. Prince Charles is also Tom’s godfather.

Camilla’s engagement ring from Charles belonged to the Queen Mother.

The Queen Consort’s wedding and engagement rings.
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Charles and Camilla got engaged in February 2005 and wed that April. Her engagement ring has a 5-carat emerald-cut diamond surrounded by three diamond baguettes on either side.

Camilla was technically the Princess of Wales before she became Queen Consort, but she didn’t use the title since it was so closely associated with Princess Diana.

Princess Diana and Camilla in 1980.
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Duke of Cornwall is a title given to a reigning British monarch’s oldest son. When Camilla married Charles, she took on the feminine version of the title as the Duchess of Cornwall instead of the Princess of Wales.

Princess Diana was still known as the Princess of Wales following her divorce from Charles in 1996. She died in 1997.

After Queen Elizabeth’s death, Prince William and Kate Middleton became the Prince and Princess of Wales.

She has five grandchildren and five royal step-grandchildren.

Carole Middleton and Charles, then Prince of Wales, hold bridesmaid Eliza Lopes as Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, looks out from the balcony of Buckingham Palace following Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in 2011.
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Her son, Tom, has two children, Lola and Freddy. Laura has a daughter, Eliza, and twin boys, Gus and Louis. Eliza was a bridesmaid at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.

Camilla loves dogs, and she has two Jack Russell terriers named Beth and Bluebell.

Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, with Beth, her Jack Russell terrier in 2020.
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She is a royal patron of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in London, where she adopted her dogs.

She’s an avid fan of the outdoors and loves gardening.

Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall and Charles, then Prince of Wales, admire flowers at the Chelsea Flower Show.
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The Duchess of Cornwall used to enjoy fox hunting until it became illegal in 2005. She also told reporters on a 2018 visit to the Garden Museum in London, “I’d be out in my garden all day, every day if I were allowed. I love to get my hands dirty.”

She runs an online book club called The Reading Room.

Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, reads to children in 2020.
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Through The Reading Room, the Queen Consort shares her book recommendations and features discussions with the authors on the book club’s Instagram account. Recent titles have included “Dark Tides” by Philippa Gregory, “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, and “The Fair Botanists” by Sara Sheridan.

She embraces the label “feminist.”

Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, speaks to staff at Belfast & Lisburn Women’s Aid, which supports those affected by domestic violence, in 2020.
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In a June 2022 interview with British Vogue, writer Giles Hattersley asked the then-Duchess of Cornwall if she identifies as a feminist.

“The Duchess finds my question about whether she is a feminist ridiculous: of course she is!” Hattersley wrote.

In the interview, Camilla also spoke about her work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault as a patron for organizations like SafeLives.

“I think we all know somebody who it’s happened to,” she said. “I was hearing it too often, from friends who knew friends, and I thought maybe I ought to look into it to see if there was somewhere for me to help.”


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