Camilla Shand, better known to the public as Parker Bowles, met Charles in the summer of 1971. The two quickly found a common language, and their friendly relationship turned romantic the very next year. The heir to the throne floated plans to propose to Camilla (then a spinster), but fear of his family's disapproval of the relationship dissuaded him. At the end of 1972, the couple broke up, and the prince's former sweetheart married Andrew Parker Bowles, an officer in the British Army, the following year.
The relationship was renewed six years later, and the affair continued until Charles' wedding to Diana Spencer in 1981.
Initially, it was not Lady Di who was to become a duchess, as Charles was dating her sister, Sarah. He met Diana by chance when he visited his fiancée at the family home. Fascinated by a girl 13 years younger than himself, he decided to continue his acquaintance with her, and already during their second meeting in 1980 he started a relationship with her.
On February 6, 1981, at Windsor Castle, the future King of Great Britain proposed to Diana, and already on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the couple married. There has been no shortage of claims that the marriage to Diana was a choice dictated by reason, rather than the feelings that had always been attached to Camilla since the early 1970s. It is difficult to argue with this claim, for as early as 1983, Charles and Camilla renewed their romantic relationship.
