Exactly 20 years ago today, the now King and Queen were married in a small, private civil ceremony in Windsor.
The wedding, which was eight years after Princess Diana’s death, divided the nation – with royal aides even fearing the newlyweds might have things thrown at them.
But on 9 April 2025, life is very different for the couple, who have appeared relaxed and happy this week on their first royal visit to Italy as King and Queen.
Image: The King and Queen in Rome this week. Pic: Chris Jackson/Getty
In recent years, they have navigated the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the King’s ill-health, increasing Republican sentiment across the Commonwealth, and strained relationships with family members at home and abroad.
Here we look at their five-decade relationship – and how things have changed since they got married.
‘They hold each other up’
The late Queen Elizabeth II famously referred to the Duke of Edinburgh as her “strength and stay” during their 73-year marriage.
In Charles and Camilla’s relationship, humour plays a big role in coping with the demands of royal life, Kristina Kyriacou, who served as the King’s communications secretary from 2009 to 2018, tells Sky News.
“I would often see them laughing with one another – at some engagements they’d even take to the dance floor together,” she says.
Image: The Royal Family pose for a photograph on Charles and Camilla’s wedding day. Pic: PA
Image: The King’s Speech during the state opening of Parliament in July 2024. Pic: Reuters
King Charles and Queen Camilla are like “bookends” to one another, former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole tells Sky News.
“They hold each other up. They’re very devoted to one another,” he says.
‘No-nonsense’ Queen stepped up during King’s illness
In the past year we’ve really seen that no-nonsense side of Camilla, prepared to roll her sleeves up and get on with it.
When the King’s cancer diagnosis forced him to step away from public duties, it was striking to see how she stepped in.
Public opinions have softened, in some cases it’s probably a case of people just getting used to her being around.
Not everyone can quite get to grips with calling her Queen – the footsteps of Queen Elizabeth II are considerable ones to follow. But like Elizabeth’s husband Prince Philip, Camilla knows her role is to support, to be the listening ear, and as we often see, enjoy those times when she and the King can laugh together.
From the early years of them having to hide their relationship away, it couldn’t be more different now.
On their anniversary night they’ll be guests of honour at a glittering state banquet in Rome. Accepted, centre stage, and ultimately representing the United Kingdom.
Fears eggs would be thrown at wedding
But it hasn’t always been easy – as many longstanding royal watchers will remember.
When they were married, in the eyes of some, Camilla was still the “third person” in her husband’s previous marriage to Princess Diana.
With the late Queen’s blessing to take her title when she died in 2022, Queen Camilla is now part of the “bedrock” of the Royal Family, according to royal experts.
During a rare interview with British Vogue to mark her 75th birthday in 2022, the Queen recalled: “I was scrutinised for such a long time that you just have to find a way to live with it.
“Nobody likes to be looked at all the time and criticised. But I think in the end, I sort of rise above it and get on with it.”
Image: The couple with the late Queen after their blessing in Windsor in April 2005. Pic: PA
Amid lingering public discontent over the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage, his second wedding was a muted affair.
It was held at the Windsor Guildhall and not broadcast live on television. Charles didn’t wear his military garb and Camilla didn’t wear white.
The late Queen didn’t attend the ceremony but was there for the reception at Windsor Castle.
Mr Cole says: “Buckingham Palace had a real fear they would have eggs thrown at them, so the ceremonial parades were kept to a minimum.”
Camilla, out of respect for Diana, took Duchess of Cornwall as her title, not Princess of Wales. Almost two decades later, however, she received the ultimate symbol of approval when the late Queen ruled that Camilla would replace her as Queen when she died.
“They’ve just gone out there consistently and done their job and I think they’ve earned respect for that,” Ms Kyriacou says. “Eventually memories fade and people instead accept people for who they are.”
Image: Charles and Camilla on the way to their honeymoon in 2005. Pic: PA
Image: Charles and Camilla at a polo event in June 2005. Pic: PA
Image: The couple in February 2005. Pic: PA
“It was all done gradually,” Mr Cole says. “Step by step, the idea that they were together was introduced to the public.”
So how did it all begin?
Timeline of Charles and Camilla
1967: Camilla begins an on-off relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles
1970: Their relationship ends and Charles and Camilla begin dating
1972: Their relationship ends and Charles joins the Navy
1973: Camilla and Andrew rekindle their romance and get married
1980: Charles starts dating Lady Diana Spencer
1981: Charles and Diana get married
1989: The “Tampongate” recording takes place but it is not published
1992: Charles and Diana separate, with “no plans to divorce”
1993: The “Tampongate” tapes are published by an Australian magazine
1994: Charles admits being unfaithful to Diana
1995: Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorce and Diana does her Newsnight interview
1996: Charles and Diana’s divorce is finalised
1997: Diana dies in a car crash in Paris
1999: Charles and Camilla go public at her sister’s birthday party
2000: Camilla meets the Queen
2005: Charles and Camilla get engaged in February and get married in April
2022: Charles and Camilla become King and Queen
2024:King and Princess of Wales reveal cancer diagnoses
2025: Catherine in remission from cancer, King continues treatment
Failed first relationship
The relationship stretches back 55 years, to when Prince Charles and Camilla Shand are thought to have met for the first time at a polo match in London in 1970.
Camilla, the daughter of an esteemed military officer, had been in an on-off relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles, a captain with The Blues and Royals regiment of the British Army.
Image: Charles and Camilla at a polo match in 1975. Pic: Shutterstock
Charles had only been officially invested with the title of the Prince of Wales a year earlier and was fresh out of Cambridge University and RAF training.
Having bonded over a shared love of polo and countryside pursuits, they dated for around two years before the prince left to join the Navy and Camilla rekindled her romance with Mr Parker Bowles, marrying him a year later in 1973.
Image: Charles and Camilla leave the theatre in London in February 1975. Pic: PA
Over the years, many have cited the now King’s military commitments as the reason their initial relationship broke down.
But Mr Cole recalls it differently. “It would be wrong to say that he ‘missed the bus’ and could have married her then, but hesitated,” he says. “The fact was she loved Andrew Parker Bowles.”
He adds that at that point, Camilla would not have been considered by the Queen and her advisers to be a suitable bride for the heir to the throne because she had a “past” (as it was put then) – meaning earlier relationships before meeting Charles.
‘Third person’ in Charles and Diana’s marriage
In the years that followed, the young Prince Charles was under pressure to marry and began dating Lady Diana Spencer, the younger sister of his ex-girlfriend Sarah.
Image: Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer pose for their engagement photo in 1981. Pic: PA
Image: Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles at Buckingham Palace in 1984 with their children to get his OBE from the Queen. Pic: PA
By that stage, Camilla had given birth to two children, Tom in 1974 and Laura in 1978.
Diana famously told Newsnight in 1995 that “there were three of us in this marriage” – the third person being Camilla.
Image: Camilla and Diana in October 1980. Pic: PA
Charles admitted adultery in a 1994 interview with Jonathan Dimbleby – a precursor to Diana’s explosive Newsnight interview. He confessed he had been unfaithful after their marriage “irretrievably broke down”.
Further evidence came in the form of the “Tampongate” tape, a recording of a phone call between Charles and Camilla in which they exchanged sexual innuendos.
While the contents of the call weren’t leaked until 1993 – a year after Charles and Diana announced their separation – the conversation reportedly took place in 1989, when they were both married to other people.
Image: Charles and Camilla at the Mey Highland Games in 2003. Pic: PA
Charles Anson, former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II from 1990 to 1997, says that while it wasn’t palace business to be commenting on private relationships, it was an “issue” that had to be navigated carefully.
“It was a feature of life at that time and therefore something that needed to be handled,” he says. “Prince Charles and Camilla were part of the landscape.”
According to Mr Cole, it was always Charles driving their relationship in the early days.
“She was happy with her life in the countryside, with her children, and would have been quite happy to remain his mistress – she didn’t expect anything else,” he says. “But for Charles it was non-negotiable, he had to have her.”
Image: The pair at Sandringham in March 2002. Pic: PA
Going public
The breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage dominated headlines as one of the biggest news stories of its time.
It wasn’t until after Diana died that Charles and Camilla officially appeared in public together – at a birthday party for Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot at the Ritz Hotel in early 1999.
Image: Camilla arrives at her 50th birthday party at Highgrove in July 1997. Pic: PA
However, a month before Diana’s death in Paris in the summer of 1997, Charles threw a birthday party for Camilla at his Gloucestershire country home, Highgrove.
The late Queen did not attend. She reportedly only agreed to formally meet Camilla in 2000.
Image: Charles and Camilla pictured as a couple in public together for the first time in London in 1999. Pic: PA
Image: The couple attend a Prince’s Foundation gala in June 2000. Pic: PA
Standing the test of time
Mr Anson, former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II from 1990 to 1997, now describes their relationship as the “bedrock of the monarchy”.
Ultimately, it’s their love for one another which has seen their “partnership stand the test of time”, Ms Kyriacou says.
“I remember King Charles consistently referring to Queen Camilla as his ‘darling wife’. And that’s very touching – and it’s how I will remember them on their 20th wedding anniversary.”
Image: At a Clarence House reception in March 2025. Pic: PA
In her Vogue interview, the Queen revealed they always try to make quality time for one another.
“It’s not easy sometimes, but we do always try to have a point in the day when we meet,” she said. “Sometimes it’s like ships passing in the night, but we always sit down together and have a cup of tea and discuss the day.”
Ms Kyriacou remembers this, telling Sky News: “They don’t do every single engagement together, but no matter what, they will try to share breakfast or dinner.
“Being a member of the Royal Family is a privileged position but my impression was that it must also be very lonely when you are constantly under intense public scrutiny – your inner circle is so small. So to have someone you can trust implicitly, who you can share everything with and who understands that is what carries them through.”
Image: The King and Queen prepare donation bags with dates for Ramadan in February 2025. Pic: Reuters
Image: Stopping for a whiskey tasting on Northern Ireland visit. Pic: Reuters
This has likely been even more important as the King navigates his cancer treatment, she adds.
“For over 50 years of public life he has been indefatigable in terms of how many engagements he takes on,” Ms Kyriacou says.
“So he tries not to draw attention to himself. He tells people just enough, but he’s still trying to be humorous, compassionate, affable. And the Queen understands this – that he cannot let his emotions come first – that his public persona has to stay very neutral.”
Image: The couple during a visit to a Samoan village in 2024. Pic: Reuters
Image: The King and Queen lead the Royal Family as they arrive at church on Christmas Day 2024. Pic: PA
But she will also use that “mutual respect” to be firm with him about what he needs.
“Particularly in these times of ill-health, I should imagine the Queen can temper the King’s workaholic nature and make strong suggestions to him to take more time to relax,” she says.
“Everything challenging they’ve been through will almost certainly have been halved because they’ve gone through it together.”
The threat of physical attacks by Iran on people living in the UK has increased “significantly” since 2022, according to a new report by parliament’s intelligence watchdog.
Iran poses a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat” to the UK, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
It also said Iran’s intelligence services were “willing and able – often through third party agents – to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK”.
Image: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pic: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report said there have been 15 murder or kidnap attempts against British citizens or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022 and August 2023.
Sky News has approached the Iranian embassy for a comment.
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Millions of Iranians unite in mourning
The report authors add: “Whilst Iran’s activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and crucially – unpredictable.”
The committee also says that while the threat is often focused on dissidents and other opponents to the regime, there is also an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.
More on Iran
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The report warns that while Iran has not developed a nuclear weapon, it has taken steps towards that goal.
It found that Iran had been “broadly compliant” with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at limiting its nuclear ambitions.
But since Donald Trump withdrew from that deal in 2018, the report said the nuclear threat had increased and Tehran “had the capability to arm in a relatively short period”.
The UK government is also accused of “fire-fighting” rather than developing a real understanding of Iran.
Image: Iran’s president oversees a parade in Tehran in April showing off the country’s military hardware. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
Image: Missiles are paraded through the capital during the recent National Army Day ceremony. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report says: “The government’s policy on Iran has suffered from a focus on crisis management, driven by concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme, to the exclusion of other issues.
“As one of our expert witnesses told the committee: ‘Strategy is not a word that I think has crossed the lips of policy makers for a while, certainly not in relation to Iran’.”
The committee concluded its evidence-taking in August 2023, the result of two years of work, but the report authors say their conclusions “remain relevant”.
But the report authors questioned whether UK sanctions against individuals would “in practice deliver behavioural change. Or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China”.
The committee also said the British government should consider proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), although some argue it would limit the UK’s ability to talk to and influence Iran.
Responding to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: “The government will take action wherever necessary to protect national security, which is a foundation of our plan for change.
“We have already placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme and introduced further sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Iran, bringing the total number of sanctions to 450.”
British security services say Tehran uses criminal proxies to carry out its work in Britain.
In December, two Romanians were charged after a journalist working for a Persian language media organisation in London was stabbed in the leg. In May, three Iranian men appeared in court charged with assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists.
Earlier this year, the UK government said it would require the Iranian state to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK, because of what it called increasingly aggressive activity.
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Image: Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’sretail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Image: Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.
And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.
There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.
Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.
Image: Minck, a French search and rescue ship, shadows the boat
The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.
A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.
Image: Sky’s Adam Parsons at the scene
As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.
Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.
Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.
The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.
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The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.
We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.
They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.
In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.