Camilla Rosemary Shand – known as 'Milla' by family and friends – was born in rural Sussex on 17 July 1947, the daughter of Major Bruce Shand, an ex-army wine merchant, and the Hon. Rosalind Cubitt. Like her eventual rival Diana Spencer, she was educated at a private school and a Swiss finishing school, later working for a year for London decorators Colefax & Fowler.
She first met Prince Charles at a polo match in 1970 and dated him for a time. She is supposed to have told him: 'My great-grandmother [Alice Keppel] was your great-great-grandfather [Edward VII]'s mistress, so how about it?' But after the prince decided to concentrate on a naval career, Camilla married the queen mother's Roman Catholic godson Major Andrew Parker Bowles, later silver-stick-in-waiting to Elizabeth II. They had two children: Tom (Prince Charles' godson) and Laura.
Camilla – with her husband, who was a friend of the prince's – remained in contact with Charles, and by the end of the 1970s, the two were close again. In fact, Camilla was the prince's official escort at the independence celebrations in Zimbabwe in 1980.
In 1981, Charles married Diana Spencer, a union said to have been encouraged by Camilla – he is even supposed to have proposed to Diana in the Parker Bowles' vegetable garden. It is believed that, within five years, his and Camilla's relationship was rekindled. Princess Diana later complained in a television interview that there had been 'three in the marriage', and she is said to have nicknamed Camilla 'The Rottweiler'.
In 1992, evidence of how long the affair had been going on came to light with the 'Camillagate' tape – a recording of an intimate telephone conversation between Charles and Camilla that had been made in December 1989. At about the same time as the transcript was published in the tabloids, prime minister John Major announced that Charles and Diana were officially separating. Camilla, the 'other woman', became a national hate figure – it was said that women even threw bread rolls at her in a supermarket.
Camilla and Andrew divorced in 1995; the following year, he married his long-time partner Rosemary Pitman. In that year, Charles and Diana were also divorced. It was only after Diana's death in 1997 that Camilla and Charles' relationship became more widely accepted. In 1999, they first appeared together for the cameras, she met his sons, and she hosted a 50th birthday party for Charles. The next year, she formally met the queen. In June 2004, she appeared for the first time in the prince's official accounts – a sign that her role as royal mistress was finally being accepted.
On 9 April 2005, Charles and Camilla were married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, attended by her former husband and his wife, but not by the queen. Opinion polls suggested that people, although still divided about the marriage, were coming round to the idea. A poll in the Sun just before the wedding showed that 40% approved of the marriage, 36% were against and 24% had no opinion. However, in one taken nine months earlier, the public had opposed Camilla becoming queen by a three-to-one margin (74% against, 21% in favour).
In an obvious attempt to appease Diana's die-hard supporters, it was announced that Camilla would be known, not as 'princess of Wales', as she is legally entitled, but as 'HRH The Duchess of Cornwall and of Rothesay'. Nor, officials claimed (with an eye on the same constituency), would she be styled 'Queen' when Charles became king; instead she would be known as 'HRH The Princess Consort'.
All this is legal and historical nonsense. If the wife of a king does not automatically, both by law and immemorial custom, become 'Queen', why did George IV try to divorce his wife Caroline of Brunswick to deprive her of the title of 'Queen'? And why did Edward VIII have to abdicate to marry Mrs Simpson?
But, nonsense though it might be, this bold, unilateral innovation is characteristic of a royal house that threw over its name, its nationality and its closest relations in 1917 – all in the name of survival.
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 Profile: Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
www.cbc.ca/news/background/royals/camill
a.html
Even-handed concise biography of Prince Charles' second wife, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
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Camilla and Charles: The love story by Caroline Graham (John Blake, 2006)
Royalist history of their relationship.
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