A Crowded Marriage

Diana was jealous of her, Charles was in love with her, the nation hated her – the dramatic fall and rise of Camilla.

AN EXPLOSIVE new biography of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has lifted the lid on her affair with Prince Charles. The book by royal biographer Penny Junor reveals how the prince was driven to the verge of a nervous breakdown as his marriage disintegrated and how he turned to Camilla for solace and companionship. When news of their affair broke, Camilla became the most hated woman in Britain.

In these edited extracts, Junor reveals Princess Diana’s obsession with her husband’s mistress, the fallout as the marriage broke down, and how Camilla nearly didn’t make it to her own wedding to Charles because she was so terrified.

THE OTHER WOMAN

IN JULY 1991 Charles and Diana celebrated 10 years of marriage, and although we now know it was over in all but name, this wasn’t common knowledge at the time.

The marriage had broken down irretrievably, they were living largely separate lives and both had lovers. The War of the Waleses was at its height, and Diana, who waged war far more effectively than her husband, was prepared to do and say anything to damage him.

“Diana driven to five suicide bids by ‘uncaring’ Charles”, ran the headline on the front page of the Sunday Times, which serialised Andrew Morton’s book Diana: Her True Story. It went on to talk about Diana’s bulimia, her husband’s indifference towards her, his obsession with Camilla, his shortcomings as a father and the loneliness and isolation she had felt for so many years, trapped in a loveless marriage within a hostile court and disapproving royal family.

It was uncomfortable and at times shocking reading. From the moment the book hit the newsstands in 1992, life as they had known it was over for Diana, for Charles, for William and Harry, for Camilla and for the entire Parker Bowles family, not to mention the monarchy.