Prince Harry was left heartbroken by King Charles’s new relationship, once accusing Queen Camilla – then Camilla Parker Bowles – of taking his father away from him.
Camilla and King Charles’ love story began in the 1970s, with whispers of an affair during his marriage to Harry and William’s mother, Princess Diana. This was later confirmed by Diana herself in a shocking interview in the 90s.
Two years after Diana’s tragic passing in Paris, Charles and Camilla stepped out publicly as a couple for the first time, and they’ve been inseparable since. In 2005, they announced their engagement and tied the knot just a few months later. However, their wedding was surrounded by controversy due to both being divorcees, leading them to choose a civil ceremony.
This was the King and Queen’s official wedding photo released by Clarence House in 2005 -Credit:Getty Images
The Queen, Charles’ mother, was notably absent from the ceremony but attended the religious blessing afterwards, reports the Mirror. Despite Prince Harry and Prince William being pictured smiling next to their newlywed father at Windsor Castle, Harry confessed in his memoir Spare that he had strong reservations about Charles remarrying.
He feared losing his father to his new stepmother, writing: “I knew without question that this marriage would take Pa away from us. Not in any real sense, not in any deliberate or malicious way, but nevertheless – away. He was entering a new space, a closed space, a tightly insular space,”.
The dad-of-two shared that he had “mixed feelings” about Camilla marrying his father, and already felt a sense of competition with his new stepmum, accusing her of spreading negative press stories about him. Harry was livid, claiming she had “sacrificed me on her personal PR altar”, but he had to suppress his feelings when he “saw Pa’s smile and it was hard to argue with that, and harder still to deny the cause.”
Harry’s remarks about Camilla have reportedly left Charles seething, and when the prince came back to the UK last month, the King found himself torn between his son and his wife. GB News reported that sources claimed Harry refused to meet with his father if Camilla was present, leading to “negotiations” over who could be in the room during a meeting with the King.
This ultimately resulted in Harry being overlooked. “I think the reason was because Harry made certain demands about who could be in the room and who couldn’t. Although on the surface it looks like a snub, Harry made it very difficult for his father,” Royal commentator Charlotte Griffiths explained.
