King Charles’ first-ever meeting with Queen Camilla sparked immediate romance

King Charles and Queen Camilla may not have had a smooth road to marriage, but their first meeting did spark an immediate romance.

Camilla has risen up the royal ranks after marrying Charles in 2005 and is now a supportive role to the King after he ascended to the throne.

But the couple’s romance has been long and complicated, back to when the first met and began dating before Charles went off to join the Royal Navy. It saw them split up with both going their separate ways, and Charles later marrying Princess Diana.

Charles and Camilla first met in 1970 at a polo match in Windsor Great Park, immediately hitting it off over a common interest in the outdoors.

Camilla Shand was the daughter of an officer in the Army, Major Bruce Shand, and his wife Rosalind. She was an avid horse lover who previously admitted she spent her childhood preoccupied with “charging about on them”.

At the time it is understood Camilla had joked about her own great-grandmother having had a relationship with King Edward VII, telling Charles: “My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great-grandfather. I feel we have something in common.”

After meeting, the pair dated for some time, before Charles left for the Royal Navy. Upon his return eight months later, Camilla was already engaged to his sister Anne’s ex, Andrew Parker Bowles. Camilla and Parker Bowles got married in 1973 and the marriage ended in 1995.

Despite the seemingly awkward nature of the situation, it is believed Charles and Camilla remained friends. Charles met Diana when she was 18 in 1980 and got married the following year but their well documented rocky marriage led to them splitting up with then-Prime Minister John Major announcing it in 1992.

Charles and Camilla announced their engagement in February of 2005, triggering widespread speculation about which title she should undertake. Buckingham Palace announced it would be giving her the title of Duchess of Cornwall, in order to avoid any controversy surrounding the late Princess Diana’s title.

The couple got married in April that year, 35 years after meeting, and by 2012 Camilla was showing signs of being fully accepted by the family when the Queen gave her the title of Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian, before riding alongside her during her Diamond Jubilee. In February 2022, the Queen announced that upon Charles ascension to the throne, Camilla would become Queen Consort.