In July 1997, the then-Prince Charles threw a grand birthday party for Camilla Parker Bowles’s 50th at Highgrove House, his country home in Gloucestershire.
This was a major event announcing Camilla as an important person in Charles’s life and the birthday party was the first joint event for Charles and Camilla – but it lacked important attendees.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip famously did not attend the party on July 18, 1997, nor did any of Charles’ siblings—and neither did Margaret. In her 2017 biography ‘Prince Charles’, author Sally Bedell Smith noted the « absence of any members of the royal family », writes E! News.
It is unclear if Charles tried to convince his mother, Queen Elizabeth, to go to the party, as Netflix‘s ‘The Crown’ depicts, and the 80-person guest list has remained secret.
The birthday party included canapés, a five-course meal, cake, and even a spot of dancing. Even though the event was private, papers ran aerial photos of the party tent, and an archived Mirror article from 1997 notes that Camilla arrived in the passenger seat of a Vauxhall Omega estate car which was « driven slowly past photographers. »
While reports of the party treated Camilla favorably, which was Charles’ primary aim, Diana’s sunny holiday dominated the front pages of newspapers.
Prince Harry would later write about that trip in his memoir, Spare. He explains: « We’d been with Mummy weeks earlier when she first met him [Dodi Al Fayed], in St. Tropez. We were having a grand time, just the three of us, staying at some old gent’s villa.
« There was much laughter, horseplay, the norm whenever Mummy and Willy and I were together, though even more so on that holiday. Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven… »
Diana was invited by Mohamed Al Fayed, a friend and businessman, to vacation in Saint-Tropez with her sons in July 1997, and the Harrods owner would also be joined by his son too on the trip.
The then-Prince Charles was first introduced to Camilla in 1970 by their mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz. Later when they both separated from their spouses, Charles and Camilla gradually began to spend more time together, even being spotted together in public.
In January 1999, the couple made their first official outing together at Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot’s birthday party at the Ritz Hotel in London, with 150 photographers snapping them leaving together.
By 2000, the Queen began to accept her son’s choice of partner, and they started gradually attending official royal events together, moving into Clarence House together in August 2003.
The pair married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on April 9, 2005, just outside of Windsor Castle, with Camilla receiving the title of Duchess of Cornwall upon their marriage.
After many years, Camilla eventually won over both the Royal Family and the British public, and Camilla’s devotion to duty and to her husband was reflected when Queen Elizabeth announced that she would be known as Queen Consort once Charles became King.
Source link
