The Prince of Wales has spent a lifetime waiting, which is what one does if Mummy is queen of England and the longest-reigning British monarch on record. But, as biographer Sally Bedell Smith notes in her new book, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, the heir has spent much of his life eclipsed by others.
“For a few hours in a ballroom in steamy Sri Lanka, Charles was the centre of attention, and he clearly savoured the spotlight,” wrote Smith, who attended a 2013 meeting of Commonwealth leaders to watch the prince in action. “Back home, he was often put in the shade by his revered mother, by his dazzling son Prince William and his beautiful wife, Catherine, by their son Prince George (and, later, Princess Charlotte), by William’s enormously popular brother, Prince Harry, and by the memory of Diana, fixed in time at age thirty-six as the tragic and beloved Princess of Wales. Closer to his destiny than ever, Charles had become a shadow king-in-waiting.”
And what of the queen-in-waiting, the Duchess of Cornwall? No mention of her on Smith’s list, even though she accompanied Charles to that meeting. But then the former Camilla Parker Bowles has always seemed to pull back from the spotlight, content to let Charles shine in a way his family never could.
Yet, as Smith’s biography makes clear, Camilla’s impact on Charles has been considerable, first as his mistress in an on-again, off-again relationship that spanned decades and the end of both their marriages, and then as the second wife whom the prince married in 2005. So, while this is very much a biography about Charles — billed as the first major biography of the prince in 20 years — the reader will find Camilla woven throughout much of the story.
Smith is well-suited to write this book. A biographer whose subjects have ranged from Kennedys to Clintons, CBS’ William S. Paley and Ambassador Pamela Harriman, she’s also the author of Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess, (1999) and Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch (2012), the 60th anniversary of the queen’s ascension to the throne. She knows the royal turf, so to speak.
Inevitably, perhaps, some press reports sparked by Smith’s book focused mostly on Charles’ ill-fated marriage to Diana, whose glamour, beauty and star wattage always outshone Camilla. (Even the first press reports of a new biography of Camilla by Penny Junor, The Duchess: The Untold Story, due out in the United States in March, have focused on the Diana-Charles-Camilla triangle.) You will surely recall some of the often ugly comparisons made between the two women when news of Camilla’s affair with the prince became public (and the comparing hasn’t stopped — a Daily Mail story recently declared, “Basically, the world is divided into two types of women: Dianas and Camillas.”
Smith describes Camilla at age 66 (the duchess turned 70 on Monday) as “more handsome than pretty, with high cheekbones, lines and furrows befitting her age, and a strong jaw.”
The biographer goes on: “It seemed to me that what she lacked in classical beauty, she made up for with the expressiveness of her eyes and the play of mischief in her smile. Her low and husky voice hinted at Marlboros and gin.”
I mean, what’s not to like? Plenty, according to public opinion polls taken in 2015 around the time of the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary.
One study cited by Smith said 35 percent of respondents were against Camilla being queen, but another survey found 55 percent said Camilla shouldn’t be queen — and 57 percent thought Charles shouldn’t be king. The question still remains whether Camilla will become queen when Charles becomes king or will she, as was announced at the time of the wedding, be called “princess consort,” a title never used before.
“Despite all the progress she had made, Camilla continued to pay a price for her affair with Charles and the breakup of his marriage to Diana,” Smith wrote.
The prince’s second wife has been harshly blamed for the failure of that first marriage, especially by the first wife, but I think the Duchess of Cornwall’s steadfast loyalty to Charles over the decades deserves some credit even if, in Smith’s words, “she had been the subject of scandal and controversy” in his life.
Although I’m a journalist working in this age of the tell-all, I’ve admired Camilla for keeping her mouth (mostly) shut all those years, despite being pilloried as the “other” woman. (Smith chronicles some strategically timed whispered asides to a favoured journalist — as one who relishes the well-placed leak, that’s another plus in her favour.) But then I’ve always been partial to Camilla, viewing her as the personification of the “less-is-more” school of the British aristocracy — you know: Horses, country estates, sensible shoes and blue-blooded discretion.
And while the duchess is perfectly willing to let her prince have the spotlight, she remains her own woman with a home of her own and, until relatively recently, a smoking habit she exercised not only in Charles’ gardens but sometimes in his house (Smith writes that when Charles ducked out after dinner Camilla “lit up a cigarette and put her face next to the fireplace”).
I suppose it’s ironic Charles is getting short shrift in this story, especially as it was sparked by his biography. But I don’t think he’d mind the slight and might even admire the irony. For while Charles infamously replied “Whatever love means” when asked if he was in love when his engagement to Diana was announced, there’s no need to ask the question when it came to Camilla. As Queen Elizabeth II herself noted in remarks at their Windsor Castle wedding reception in 2005, “They have come through, and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.” —Chicago Tribune/TNS
THOSE WERE THE DAYS: A young Prince Charles talks to Camilla Parker Bowles at a polo match in 1975.
