Before Prince Charles married Princess Diana in 1981, he was dating Camilla Parker Bowles. We are all familiar with the infamous royal infidelity when Princess Diana found out that her husband was cheating on her with his ex, Camilla Parker Bowles. But what is maybe not so known is the reason why did Prince Charles and Parker Bowles broke up in the first place?
Prince Charles and Camilla Shand met in 1970 during a polo match. After a while, they started dating, but things got complicated when Camilla’s ex-boyfriend, Andrew Parker Bowles, came into the mix and began dating Princess Anne, Prince Charles’ sister. Sarah Bradford wrote in her book, Diana, “Princess Anne was in love with [Andrew], Camilla was in love with Andrew, Charles was in love with Camilla, Camilla was having some of it, but she was also potty about Andrew–all this intrigue was going on.”
Source: birminghammail
When Prince Charles was sent overseas due to his Royal Navy work, he and Camilla had to break up. During his time abroad, Camilla ended up marrying Andrew Parker Bowles. Things got even more complicated for them, as Camilla wasn’t from an aristocratic family and not a virgin, which were the two musts for a future king to marry.
Despite Camilla’s marriage with Parker Bowles and Prince Charles’ marriage with Princess Diana, the two remained good friends, and in 1993 it was discovered the infamous affair which media called ‘Camillagate’ and ‘tampongate.’ The reason for the latter was the call Prince Charles made with Camilla, in which he said, “Oh God. I’ll just live inside your trousers or something. It would be much easier!” and Camilla responding, “What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers? Oh, you’re going to come back as a pair of knickers.” Prince Charles’s answer started ‘tampongate.’ “Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just my luck!”
