The Duchess: The Untold Story – the explosive biography, as seen in the Daily Mail. Penny Junor

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       INTRODUCTION

      For much of the final decade of the twentieth century, one story regularly dominated the news across much of the developed world. It was the unravelling of the marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, and his beautiful, charismatic princess, Diana. This real-life drama had all the ingredients of a blockbuster: money, sex and monarchy. Month after month, the public was privy to the betrayals and infidelities, to snippets of life behind Palace doors, even to snatches of intimate, late-night telephone conversations between lovers; it was better than the best fiction and it gripped the millions who followed its every excruciating twist and turn in the pages of the tabloid press.

      In the midst of it all was a woman in her forties: Camilla Parker Bowles, the Prince’s long-term mistress, the married woman whom Diana squarely blamed for the failure of her marriage to Charles and for fifteen years of unhappiness. She claimed her husband had been obsessed by Camilla, that he had slept with her the night before their wedding, that they’d connived together to continue their affair behind her back. She called Camilla ‘the enemy’ and ‘the Rottweiler’ and it was she to whom Diana was referring when she famously said in a lengthy interview on British television, ‘There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.’ That was the ultimate salvo in what was known as ‘The War of the Waleses’. Diana’s mother-in-law, the Queen, finally intervened. She called time and insisted the couple seek an early divorce.

      Yet whatever she might have said – and believed – Diana’s claims were false. Camilla was not the sole reason the royal marriage fell apart, and she and Charles certainly did not sleep together the night before his wedding; there were many other factors that explain what went wrong. However, there is no denying that the Prince did always love Camilla – in the way, perhaps, that we all carry a torch for our first love – and when the marriage had irretrievably broken down, he did turn to her for solace. By this time Diana had lovers of her own, but she still obsessed over his reunion with Camilla.

      Today, Camilla is known in England and Wales as the Duchess of Cornwall, and in Scotland as the Duchess of Rothesay. She is what the Prince refers to as ‘My darling wife’, and when he’s with her, you can see why. Everything about him, from the grin on his face to the relaxed body language, tells you that he adores her, depends upon her – she is a strong woman, far stronger than he – and that with her in his life he feels complete, I suspect for the first time. They are a compelling and well-matched couple, fired by the same ideals, tickled by the same sense of the absurd. They are friends, companions and soulmates, and in the fullness of time, by whatever name, she will be by his side to support him when he becomes king.

      How Camilla came to play such a pivotal role in British history is an extraordinary story of human frailty, of love, loss and great sadness. There was no simple happy ever after. A heavy price was paid for her happiness with Charles and even now it is compromised by forces beyond their control. Like all stories, over the years the facts have been distorted – either by prejudice or ignorance – and I think can bear retelling. As a writer I’ve been close to the protagonists for over thirty-five years, but this is the first time I have focused on Camilla. For more than a year I have followed her on her official engagements in Britain and abroad. I have watched her work, observed the impact she has on the people she meets and listened to her chatting to them; and I’ve chatted to her myself many a time, although I’ve not interviewed her. I’ve also spoken to friends, family and the people who work with her – all of them very special people who have been with her for years. She is utterly charming to everyone, whatever their age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or importance, and invariably has a confidential little aside for them all, making each one of them feel they are special. If she’s being taken past the receptionist behind a desk who she’s not been introduced to, or a cleaning woman, or a kitchen porter, she will stop to say hello. She chats to all the familiar reporters and photographers who follow her, always allows them to get the shot they want, and is happy to pull a face, or to be photographed eating a tricky canapé. This is by no means how every member of the Royal Family behaves. Camilla has such a twinkle in her eye that you feel the world is a better place after a couple of moments in her company. The last member of the Royal Family who had such a compelling effect on the people she met was the Queen Mother.

      The Prince of Wales adored the Queen Mother too: he was closer to his beloved grandmother during her lifetime than any other member of his family. And there are some people who think Camilla is rather like her.

      In my view, when history comes to judge her, Camilla will not be seen as the woman who nearly brought down the House of Windsor. I think she will be recognised as the woman who shored it up.

      The Queen has been loved and admired as a monarch for more than six decades, but in these turbulent times, there are no guarantees for the future. After the death of the Princess of Wales in 1997, Charles was destroyed, his popularity through the floor. Camilla СКАЧАТЬ