When King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla went public with their relationship back in 1999, it wasn't without controversy, not just among the general public but also within his family.
While the couple spent years getting stuck into their royal duties and quietly rebuilding their image, Charles' son Prince Harry has brought their affair to the fore once again with his book Spare. Published in January, the book claims that Prince William was "tormented" over suspicions that there was another woman in their parents King Charles and Princess Diana's marriage, which lasted from 1981 to 1996.
"My mother famously said there were three people in her marriage. But her maths was off. She left Willy and me out of the equation," he began, referring to her interview with journalist Martin Bashir in 1995.
"We didn’t understand what was going on with her and Pa, certainly, but we intuited enough, we sensed the presence of the Other Woman, because we suffered the downstream effects," wrote Harry, before claiming that there was a lack of stability and warmth behind closed doors.
SEE: Prince Harry's mid-wedding joke with Princess Kate's bridesmaid Pippa Middleton
The Duke of Sussex added that while he was too young to understand the situation fully, his older brother William felt "tremendous guilt" when Charles and Camilla's relationship became public knowledge.
"Willy long harbored suspicions about the Other Woman, which confused him, tormented him, and when those suspicions were confirmed he felt tremendous guilt for having done nothing, said nothing, sooner," he said.
Charles and Camilla met over a decade before he married Diana. After crossing paths at a polo match in 1970, the pair – both aged 23 – began dating, but their romance cooled when the then-Prince was called away on naval duties overseas. She went on to marry Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973 before splitting in 1995, the year before Charles and Diana officially ended their marriage.
The now-King and Queen Consort made their first public appearance together in 1999 at a party at the Ritz Hotel in London, before getting engaged and married in 2005.
In his candid interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 MINUTES, the Duke of Sussex opened up about his relationship with his stepmother Camilla and his thoughts on his father's "unnecessary" second marriage.
When Anderson asked: "You and your brother both directly asked your dad not to marry Camilla?" the Duke replied: "Yes. We didn’t think it was necessary. We thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good, and if he was now with his person, that— surely that’s enough.
"Why go that far when you don't necessarily need to? We wanted him to be happy. And we saw how happy he was with her. So, at the time, it was, 'OK.'"
REVEALED: Meghan Markle's wedding cake maker discusses 'cool' bride behind-the-scenes
Planning your wedding? Sign up to HELLO!’s Bride Guide newsletter for expert advice, budget help, wedding inspiration and real life stories delivered straight to your inbox.
