King Charles made only one public pronouncement of adoration for his wife, Princess Diana, and it occurred during his 1983 visit to Australia and New Zealand.
In his 1993 book Diana Vs Charles, veteran journalist and author James Whitaker wrote: “The couple attended a ball in Melbourne and got lost in the lift trying to find the correct floor. The lift finally stopped and when the doors opened they came face to face with veteran Press Association photographer Ron Bell. Charles emerged, his eyes shining, and, turning to Diana, he said: “Ron, isn’t she absolutely beautiful? “I’m very proud of her.”
The author said: “There is general agreement in the circle of the Prince and Princess of Wales that the marital side of their marriage ended in 1986, just five years after the royal wedding. Certainly, that is what Charles told his polo director, Ronald Ferguson.”
According to Reuters, when Charles’s first wife, the popular and glamorous Princess Diana, died at age 36 in a car crash in Paris in 1997, the media described Camilla as the most hated woman in Britain, someone who could never marry Charles, let alone become queen.
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. Diana had blamed Camilla, often portrayed as serious and dowdy, for ruining their marriage and now Camilla has been perennially compared to Charles’s photogenic first wife.
But Charles and Camilla married in 2005, and since then she has come to be recognised, albeit reluctantly by some, as a key member of the royal family, whose calming effect on her husband has helped him cope with his role.
