Queen Elizabeth snubbed Camilla during wedding to Prince Charles, new book claims

Queen Elizabeth II did not speak to Camilla Parker Bowles during her wedding to Prince Charles, a new biography of the prince claimed. According to author Tom Bower, the Queen and the Queen Mother couldn’t accept Charles’ paramour into the Royal family.

In the book, as serialised in the Daily Mail, Bower claims Her Majesty had refused to have anything to do with Camilla, who was her son’s mistress while he was still married to Diana, Princess of Wales. Even after Diana died in 1997, the Queen and her mother still actively disapproved of her. They reportedly wouldn’t allow her to be in the same room as them.

And without the Queen’s approval, Charles couldn’t bring his relationship with Camilla out into the open. His aunt, Princess Margaret, tried to intercede on his behalf, asking her sister to reconsider Camilla for Charles. But the Queen was reportedly unyielding in her opinion about the divorcee.

Bower alleges that Charles was so fed up with his mother’s treatment of Camilla that he confronted her one night. The Queen apparently referred to Camilla as “that wicked woman,” adding that she would want nothing to do with her.

Charles allegedly thought that his brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, were plotting his downfall. He thought they were spreading negative things about Camilla to their parents, the Queen and Prince Philip. His only sister, Princess Anne, was of the same opinion as their brothers as well. Apparently, Anne enjoyed an intimate friendship with Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s ex-husband, at the same time as Charles was with Camilla.

“Andrew wanted to be me,” he was claimed to have told his assistant private secretary and spin doctor, Mark Bolland. “I should have let him work with me. Now he’s unhelpful.”

Philip wrote Charles a private letter, urging him not to marry Camilla. Charles, in anger, told Bolland to leak it to the press, which Bolland did.

The Palace’s treatment of Camilla went on for years until the Queen Mother’s death in 2002. Queen Elizabeth’s attitude shifted a little when she heard Charles delivering an emotional tribute to his grandmother on television. She relented that Camilla could be present at the Queen Mother’s funeral, but “as a friend of the Queen Mother,” not as Charles’ partner.

Her treatment of Camilla softened as the years went by, but not completely. When Charles proposed to Camilla, the Queen had vetoed some of the plans the couple had. There were concerns that they couldn’t be wed because of Camilla’s unpopular reputation with the public, and there was also the question of which venue would accept the ceremony.

During Charles and Camilla’s wedding in 2005, the Queen did not attend the civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall. As the Head of the Church of England, she should not condone the marriage of a divorcee. Both Charles and Camilla were married to other people.

But it was not just that. Bower claims the Queen just didn’t like Camilla and wasn’t on board with the marriage. She apparently did not even acknowledge the bride or even speak to her. She did not mention Camilla’s name at the reception as well, and it was observed that she was also cold towards her son. The Queen reportedly stood for just “52 seconds” for a family photo with the newlyweds and then left.

Bower’s “Rebel Prince: The Power, Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles” comes out this week in the UK.