Years before King Charles met Princess Diana, he dated Queen Camilla (known then as Camilla Parker Bowles). Sometime after they ended their relationship, he started seeing Diana, and they got married. But as royal fans know during his marriage to the princess, Charles and Camilla began having an affair.
Diana knew about it, and eventually the public learned about it as well. When that happened, Camilla became the most hated woman in Britain. During that time Camilla said she couldn’t go anywhere and became a prisoner in her own home.
Here’s more on that and the three words Queen Elizabeth II used to describe her son’s mistress.
Queen Elizabeth II, then-Prince Charles, and Camilla Parker Bowles attend a service at Bayeux Cemetary in France during D-Day commemorations | Samir Hussein/WireImage
Why Camilla said she felt like a prisoner after the affair was revealed
In 1989, a raunchy phone conversation between Camilla and Charles was recorded but didn’t make headlines until 1993 when the tape was leaked to the press in what became known as Camillagate or Tampongate. There was no denying their affair as Charles talked about living inside her underwear.
According to the transcript the future king said, “Oh, God. I’ll just live inside your trousers or something. It would be much easier!” Camilla then replied, “What are you going to turn into? A pair of knickers? Oh, you’re going to come back as a pair of knickers” before Charles joked, “Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just my luck!”
Camilla said that the public scrutiny she endured after the affair was revealed made her feel like a prisoner in her home.
“I couldn’t really go anywhere,” she told the Daily Mail’s You magazine. “It was horrid. It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through it.”
Biographer reveals Queen Elizabeth’s 3 words about Camilla
Camilla Parker Bowles and Queen Elizabeth II depart for a procession to Buckingham Palace following Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
In the documentary Queen Camilla: Defiant, royal biographer Ingrid Seward backed up Camilla’s claim that after her affair with Charles became public knowledge, she was a prisoner in her own home. The author also shared what Queen Elizabeth thought about everything being said and written about Camilla in the press.
“Camila was in a very, very unpleasant situation. She was vilified; she was absolutely hated by everyone,” Seward recalled, adding that the late queen recognized that. “I mean, actually, the queen felt very sorry for her.”
Seward revealed that the late monarch used three words to describe Camilla at that time calling her that: “much maligned woman.”
The royal biographer added that Queen Elizabeth really felt for Camilla when things hit a fever pitch after Princess Diana was killed following a car crash in Paris saying: “The queen felt desperately sad for Camilla and it was a very, very, very difficult time for her especially after Diana died, then she was even more of a prisoner.”
In 2005, eight years after Princess Diana’s death, Charles married Camilla.
