Prince Charles was not Camilla’s first choice – Andrew Parker Bowles was

When Charles met Camilla he was smitten but she had no intention of marrying him – she was completely focused on another plan.

Spoiler Warning: The Crown Season 3

On April 9, 2005 when Prince Charles finally married Camilla Parker Bowles – the woman he had loved for more than 30 years, — the 50-something couple’s delight and joy was obvious.

They were legally wed after a tumultuous if not tortuous three-and-a-half decades of love and loss.

It was a long way from the early days of their relationship, which is now being retold in heartbreaking detail in sea on 3 of Netflix’s hit royal drama The Crown.

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The royal family on Charles and Camilla’s 2005 wedding day. Picture: Supplied

While Charles was smitten when they first met, Camilla was already in love with a man who could not have been further from the introspective and sensitive royal.

‘CURTSY FIRST, THEN JUMP INTO BED’

Camilla Shand’s childhood sounds idyllic: Loving and wealthy parents; boisterous, cheerful siblings and a whole lot of going to pony club meetings.

Her great-grandmother (on her maternal side) was Alice Keppel, King Edward VII’s long term and favourite mistress, who famously once quipped that “My job is to curtsy first … and then jump into bed.” (On the King’s deathbed, his wife Queen Alexandra sent for Alice and allowed her to visit her longtime lover and say goodbye.)

A young Camilla with her mother Roslinde Shand in 1965. Picture: Supplied

THE QUEEN’S PAGE

Andrew Parker Bowles’ family was far grander than Camilla’s having been intimates of the royal family for decades. He had even served as a page boy at the Queen’s 1953 coronation. He grew up in Donnington Castle, in Berkshire, attended the prestigious Sandhurst military academy after school and later became a lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Royal Horse Guards. By 1965, he was a dashing, wealthy, connected man-about-town who was very popular with women.

DEBUTANTE AND AN HEIRESS

Camilla, like Diana, Princess of Wales, had little if no inclination to study or pursue a career. Instead, she followed the well-trodden path of upper class British girls: A year-long stint at a Swiss finishing school before coming back to London to take up an easy job in, say, a gallery while waiting to make a suitable, marital match.

In Camilla’s case, this was a gig as a receptionist at exclusive interior design firm Colefax and Fowler. (Her grandmother was so worried that she would not make it to work on time that she installed her at a suite she kept at Claridges, only moments away from Camilla’s office.)

In 1965, the Shand clan held Camilla’s ‘coming out’ party, a now-antiquated tradition that marked the entry of young women into the social world. The event took place at a well-known restaurant in Knightsbridge and was duly covered by society bible Harpers & Queen, which pulled no punches mentioning that she would soon inherit the (then huge) sum of $900,000.

In the 1960s, Camilla was considered a catch. Picture: Supplied

Helping Camilla, 17, celebrate that evening was none other than 25-year-old Andrew Parker Bowles. Still, their romance would have to wait until one year later, at a ball in Scotland, when sparks really flew. (In the intervening year, Andrew had been aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of New Zealand, Sir Bernard Fergusson.) There, the 27-year-old dashing military man asked the 19-year-old to dance and the fuse was lit.

ROYAL ROMANCES

Camilla and Andrew’s relationship was a long and messy one. While they might have started dating, with him bringing her to spend weekends with his parents at the family castle, he continued to see other women – including some of her friends. But she remained intent on marrying the raffish Andrew.

“She was absolutely potty about him,” Lord Patrick Beresford, an intimate of the royal family, told biographer Sally Bedell Smith.

In 1970, Camilla faced some serious competition for Andrew’s affections when he started seeing none other than Princess Anne. In the summer of that year talk of Andrew and Anne’s growing closeness spread. He enjoyed stays at Windsor Castle and was her date during Royal Ascot, always a highlight on the royal calendar.

While Anne could not marry Andrew (he was Catholic and the rules of succession forbade it), their public courtship must have stung Camilla who remained deeply in love with him.

Things got more complicated in 1971 when one of her good friends in London by the name of Lucia Santa Cruz had a brainwave, inviting the vivacious, fun Camilla to meet a man who, Lucia felt, was desperately in need of a nice girlfriend. Enter, Prince Charles.

By all accounts, the spark between Charles and Camilla was apparent even on that first evening. He is said to have liked that she was not awed by his title nor treated him differently because of his elevated status.

Charles was reportedly instantly smitten with Camilla. Picture: Supplied

In 1972, with Andrew stationed in Northern Ireland, Charles and Camilla’s relationship intensified, with the duo often meeting up at Guards Polo Club in Windsor or spending weekends at Lord Louis Mountbatten’s country home Broadlands. Biographers are in agreement that throughout 1972, Charles fell more and more in love with Camilla.

There were serious impediments to them having a real future thought. He could never marry her because she had “a past”. More significantly, Camilla never had any interest in joining the royal family and was resolutely focused on getting Andrew to the altar.

Her friend Charles Benson has said that at the time, Camilla “still had the shadow of Andrew Parker Bowles looming large over her. He was a very attractive man, and I believe she probably just found him too much of an influence”.

Charles was in love, Camilla’s heart lay elsewhere. Picture: Supplied

Emerald Fennell as Camilla Shand in The Crown.

Essentially, while Camilla enjoyed her dalliance with Charles she had no real interest in settling down with him.

Her cousin John Bowes Lyon told biographer Sally Bedell Smith: “Camilla was very much in love with [Andrew]. Her parents were very keen that Andrew should marry her.”

THE LONG ROAD TO THE ALTAR

In late 1972, Charles and Camilla were forced to part ways when the naval ship he was attached to was sent on an eight-month tour of the Caribbean. Whether Charles told Camilla how he felt before he set sail is much-debated. No matter, the Prince set off for the balmy waters of the West Indies and Camilla was left in London.

Captain Andrew Parker Bowles with Camilla Shand on their wedding day in 1973. Picture: Supplied

When the Prince’s boat docked in the West Indies and they were able to get mail, he received heartbreaking news. After seven long years, Andrew had finally proposed and Camilla had accepted. Despite pleading with her to reconsider, on July 4 1973, on one of the hottest days of the summer, after seven long years of dating, the couple finally wed.

Camilla had finally married the man she was desperately in love with – for now.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and freelance writer with more than 15 years’ experience working for some of Australia’s biggest media titles.