London (AP) – It was a fairy tale romance.
There was the sumptuous royal marriage. A kiss on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace. Bravo from the adoring crowd below.
Wait! This is the bad story. The good is much more, well, complicated.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla met over 50 years ago, but their romance had to survive the families of interference, marriages to other people and a small amount of public ridicule before finally getting married. On Wednesday, the royal couple celebrates their 20th anniversary, a milestone made all the more remarkable by the fact that for so long their love story was overshadowed by the fairytale princess who was preceded by Camilla.
“We have missed the love story, there is no doubt,” said Sally Bedell Smith, author of “Prince Charles: the passions and paradoxes of an improbable life.” “But in all honesty, it was not something that was very visible.”
It’s a long story
British prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles left the Ritz hotel in London, the first time the couple, who has been friends for over 25 years, appeared together in public, Thursday, January 28, 1999. (AP photo / Alastair Grant, file)
The road between the moment they met in the 1970s and their marriage on April 9, 2005, was difficult.
Charles, then a young navy officer, fell in love but was quickly sent to sea for eight months. While he was absent, Camilla accepted the proposal of a dashing cavalry officer.
But they remained friends, even as a nuptial parade and Wedding with Lady Diana Spencer Played in front of an worship nation in 1981. And they were more than friends when their two marriages collapsed in the mid -1990s.
Many in Great Britain blamed Camilla for the extramarital affair that torpedoed her marriage to Diana, the young Glamor mother of Princes William and Harry who was loved for her style and the human touch that she brought to her charity work. This resentment has evolved when “the popular princess” Died in a car accident in Paris In 1997, five years after his disorder, the public separated from Charles.
British prince Charles kisses her bride, Princess Diana, on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace in London on July 29, 1981, after their marriage. (AP photo, file)
The accident pushes Camilla in the shade.
Over time, she was slowly reintroduced to the public, starting with a 1999 event where she and Charles made their first public appearance as a couple. There have been meetings with Queen Elizabeth II, as well as with William and Harry.
However, there were questions. If a divorce be king? Camilla could it ever be queen?
But finally, the time had come.
A quiet marriage
British prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, leave the Guildhall, Windsor, Saturday April 9, 2005, after their civil marriage ceremony. (Peter Tarry, Pool Photo via AP, File)
The union came on April 9, 2005 during a modest civil ceremony in Windsor – just at the bottom of the 1000 -year -old castle road which is a second house for the British Royals. Instead of the ceremonial which marked Charles’ marriage with Diana – an extravagance observed by millions of people around the world – Great Britain obtained a union between the fifty divorced.
The bride wore a cream mousseline dress and a matching coat, with a straw hat lined with lace. The groom wore a black tailgate and a gray tie. William and Harry attended, just like Camilla’s two children. In total, there were 30 guests.
A blessing ceremony at the Saint-Georges chapel of the castle later in the day brought together 800 people, including the parents of the groom, Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
There were a few huts of the crowd – probably Diana fans – but above all cheers. A banner read: “That the one who is sinless throws the first stone.”
There were waves, but not to kiss.
A sustainable union
File _ The British prince Charles is flanked by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, while he tastes a pint of Guinness during a visit to the Irish Cultural Center in western London, to celebrate his 25th anniversary in the perspective of Saint-Patrick, Tuesday March 15, 2022. (Arthur Edwards, Pool via AP, dossier) on Tuesday March 15, 2022.
Their union has now lasted five years more than Charles’ marriage with Diana and shows no signs of defect.
Julie Gottman, co-founder of the Gottman Institute, who studies relations, said that Charles and Camilla seem to embody many of the characteristics necessary for a strong marriage: confidence, commitment and sense of the shared goal.
“Before anything, they had a friendship,” she said. “And when you have a relationship in which friendship is the foundation, you are much more likely to really succeed in marriage and a committed relationship because this foundation is already there.”
The public atmosphere continued to soften in the years that followed that Charles married the woman then known as Camilla Parker Bowles.
Camilla, 77, has assumed roles in nearly 100 charitable organizations, defending problems ranging from the promotion of literacy to victims of domestic violence and the fight against the sexual exploitation of children. Some of its causes have pushed the limits of the royal family, known to support worthy but not controversial charitable organizations. For the public, it seemed to be in contact with the modern world.
His style is earth on earth. His sense of humor is self-deprecated. Like Charles, she loves dogs and horses. More specifically, she seems to make the king happy.
King Charles III British holds flowers which he was given by leaving after a visit to the Cancer Center of the Macmillan Cancer of the University Hospital of the University in London, Tuesday April 30, 2024. (AP photo / Kin Cheung, file)
Strength and stay
George Gross, a royal historian at King’s College in London, said that the relationship reminds him of this between Charles’ parents. Elizabeth described Philip 70 year old wedding and his long reign.
I think they have managed to find this way of making it work, and I think you feed each other in this resilience force, because I think you have to be resilient and if you count the number of, in fact, it is very difficult to count, the number of commitments they make each year multiplied by these 20 years of marriage, they are thousands, “said Gros.
The relationship was more disputed by Charles cancer diagnosis. The king briefly canceled his public commitments for more than two months last year after revealing that he was under treatment for a form of unknown cancer.
Camilla Entered slightly into the voidIncreasing his appearances and assuming the very important role of keeping the royal family in the eyes of the public. Camilla helped take over, demonstrating the importance of her rehabilitation for Charles and the royal family.
And when Charles resumed his duties, Camilla took a few steps back. Not in the shade, exactly, but far enough to make sure that the spotlights shone on Charles.
This suggests something else about Camilla who helped make the relationship a success, said Gottman.
“I guess … it was not a question of becoming a queen,” she said. “It was not that. What she wanted to be all over was to be her true love and her friend. ”
British prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall look at the sea during a visit to the northern island of Seymour in the Galapagos, Ecuador, Tuesday March 17, 2009. (Arthur Edwards, Pool photo via AP, file)
