How King Charles and his ‘darling’ Queen Camilla have navigated their 50-year love affair as they mark 20th wedding anniversary
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.
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.
The Royal Family pose for a photograph on Charles and Camilla’s wedding day. Pic: PA
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.
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.”
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.”
Charles and Camilla on the way to their honeymoon in 2005. Pic: PA
Charles and Camilla at a polo event in June 2005. Pic: PA
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?
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.
Charles and Camilla at a polo match in 1975. Pic: Shutterstock
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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.
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.
Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer pose for their engagement photo in 1981. Pic: PA
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.
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.
Charles and Camilla at the Mey Highland Games in 2003. Pic: PA
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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.”
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.
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.
Charles and Camilla pictured as a couple in public together for the first time in London in 1999. Pic: PA
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.”
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.”
The King and Queen prepare donation bags with dates for Ramadan in February 2025. Pic: Reuters
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.”
The couple during a visit to a Samoan village in 2024. Pic: Reuters
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.”
A woman who is under police investigation after assisting the suicide of her husband at Dignitas in Switzerland has told Sky News she has no regrets.
Louise Shackleton has spoken publicly for the first time since her husband’s death in December, as parliament prepares to vote again on legislation to introduce assisted dying in England and Wales.
Mrs Shackleton surrendered herself to police after returning from Switzerland having seen her husband Anthony die. He had been suffering with motor neurone disease for six years.
“I have committed a crime, which I have admitted to, of assisting him by simply pushing him on to a plane and being with him, which I don’t regret for one moment. He was my husband and I loved him,” she said.
“We talked at length over two years about this. What he said to me on many occasions is ‘look at my options, look at what my options are. I can either go there and I can die peacefully, with grace, without pain, without suffering or I could be laid in a bed not being able to move, not even being able to look at anything unless you move my head’.
“He didn’t have options. What he wanted was nothing more than a good death.”
The law in the UK prohibits people from assisting in the suicide of others, but prosecutions have been rare.
Louise Shackleton has spoken publicly for the first time since her husband Anthony’s death
In a statement, a North Yorkshire Police spokesman told Sky News: “The investigation is ongoing. There is nothing further to add at this stage.”
The next vote on the assisted dying bill for England and Wales has been delayed by three weeks to give MPs time to consider amendments.
The legislation would permit a person who is terminally ill with less than six months to live to legally end their life after approval by two doctors and an expert panel.
‘He was at total peace with his decision’
Mrs Shackleton says she saw her husband “physically and mentally” relax once on the flight to Switzerland.
She said: “We had the most wonderful four days.
“He was laughing. He was at total peace with his decision.
“It was in those four days that I realised that he wanted the peaceful death more than he wanted to suffer and stay with me, which was hard, but that’s how resolute he was in having this peace.
“I was his wife, we’d been together 25 years, we’d known each other since we were 18. I couldn’t do anything else but help him.”
‘We need to safeguard people’
She said the hardest part of the journey came after her husband’s death.
“There was this panic and this fear that I was leaving him,” she said. “That was a horrific experience.
“If the law had changed in this country, I would have been with family, family would have been with us, family would’ve been with him. But as it was, that couldn’t happen.”
Opponents to the assisted dying bill have raised concerns about the safety of vulnerable people and the risk of coercion and a change in attitudes toward the elderly, seriously ill and disabled.
They say improvements to palliative care should be a priority.
“I think that we need to safeguard people,” said Mrs Shackleton. “I think that sometimes we need to suffer other people’s choices, and when I mean suffer I mean we have to acknowledge that whilst we’re not comfortable with those, that we need to respect other people, other people wishes.”
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Anthony, who died aged 59, was a furniture restorer who had earned worldwide recognition for making rocking horses.
“I think the measure of the man is that nobody has ever said a bad word about him in the whole of his life because he was just so caring and giving,” his widow said.
‘This is about a dying person’s choice’
She said she had chosen to speak publicly because of a promise she had made him.
“I felt that my husband’s journey shouldn’t be in vain. We discussed this on our last day and my husband made me promise to tell his story.
“He told me to fight and the simple thing that I’m fighting for is people to have the choice.
“This is about a dying person’s choice to either follow their journey through with disease or to die peacefully when they want to, on their terms, and have a good death. It’s that simple.”
UK
Feminists ‘feel braver about speaking out’ after gender ruling – but critics say it ‘stokes culture war’
A former Labour MP who quit the party over Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership has welcomed the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman as a “victory for feminists”.
Rosie Duffield, now the independent MP for Canterbury, said the judgment helped resolve the “lack of clarity” that has existed in the politics around the issue “for years”.
She was speaking to Ali Fortescue on the Politics Hub on the same day the UK’s highest court delivered its verdict on one of the most contentious debates in politics.
Politics latest: MPs respond to Supreme Court ruling on gender
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How do you define a woman in law?
The judges were asked to rule on how “sex” is defined in the 2010 Equality Act – whether that means biological sex or “certificated” sex, as legally defined by the 2004 Gender Recognition Act.
Their unanimous decision was that the definition of a “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
Asked what she made about comments by fellow independent MP John McDonnell – who said the court “failed to hear the voice of a single trans person” and that the decision “lacked humanity and fairness” as a result, she said: “This ruling doesn’t affect trans people in the slightest.
“It’s about women’s rights – women’s rights to single sex spaces, women’s rights, not to be discriminated against.
“It literally doesn’t change a single thing for trans rights and that lack of understanding from a senior politician about the law is a bit worrying, actually.”
However, Maggie Chapman, a Scottish Green MSP, disagreed with Ms Duffield and said she was “concerned” about the impact the ruling would have on trans people “and for the services and facilities they have been using and have had access to for decades now”.
Susan Smith and Marion Calder, directors of For Women Scotland celebrate after the ruling. Pic: Reuters
“One of the grave concerns that we have with this ruling is that it will embolden people to challenge trans people who have every right to access services,” she said.
“We know that over the last few years… their [trans people’s] lives have become increasingly difficult, they have been blocked from accessing services they need.”
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‘Today’s ruling only stokes the culture war further’
Delivering the ruling at the London court on Wednesday, Lord Hodge said: “But we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.
Campaigners celebrate outside the Supreme Court. Pic: PA
“The Equality Act 2010 gives transgender people protection, not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment in substance in their acquired gender.
“This is the application of the principle of discrimination by association. Those statutory protections are available to transgender people, whether or not they possess a gender recognition certificate.”
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Asked whether she believed the judgment could “draw a line” under the culture war, Ms Chapman told Fortescue: “Today’s judgment only stokes that culture war further.”
And she said that while Lord Hodge was correct to say there were protections in law for trans people in the 2020 Equality Act, the judgment “doesn’t prevent things happening”.
“It may offer protections once bad things have happened, once harassment, once discrimination, once bigotry, once assaults have happened,” she said.
She also warned some groups “aren’t going to be satisfied with today’s ruling”.
“We know that there are individuals and there are groups who actually want to roll back even further – they want to get rid of the Gender Recognition Act from 2004,” she said.
“I think today’s ruling just emboldens those views.”
Arsenal have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League after a dramatic victory over holders Real Madrid in Spain.
The north London side, who became the first English team to win twice at the Bernabeu following their triumph there 19 years ago, will face Paris Saint-Germain in the last four after the French side beat Aston Villa on Tuesday.
It is the third time the Gunners have made it through to the semis of the top club football tournament in Europe, and the first since 2009.
Arsenal went into the second leg of their quarter-final clash on Wednesday with a 3-0 lead.
Backed by a raucous home crowd, Madrid tried to get off to a strong start and Kylian Mbappe scored after two minutes. However, the goal was disallowed for a clear offside.
Arsenal had the chance to go ahead in the 13th minute but winger Bukayo Saka missed a penalty.
The Spanish hosts were awarded a penalty of their own about 10 minutes later when Mbappe stumbled under pressure from Declan Rice in the box – but the decision was overturned by VAR.
Saka atoned for his tepid penalty as he chipped the ball past Madrid’s keeper Thibaut Courtois when put through on goal by auxiliary striker Mikel Merino in the 65th minute.
But Arsenal were pegged back just two minutes later as Vinicius Junior caught William Saliba dawdling on the ball and fired Real Madrid level.
Arsenal’s resolute defending kept the home side at bay until Gabriel Martinelli made a late break through the home side’s defence to put his side 2-1 ahead three minutes into injury time, as the Gunners made it 5-1 on aggregate.
(L-R) Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Mikel Merino celebrate after the defeat against Real Madrid. Pic: AP
‘We knew we were going to win’, says Rice
Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has insisted his team are intent on winning the Champions League after their victory in Madrid.
Speaking to TNT Sport, Rice, who was named player of the match, said: “It’s such a special night, a historic one for the club. We have the objective of playing the best and winning the competition.
“We had so much belief and confidence from that first leg and came here to win the game. We knew we were going to suffer but we knew we were going to win. We had it in our minds, then we did it [in] real life. What a night.
“I knew when I signed, this club was on an upward trajectory. It’s been tough in the Premier League but in this competition we’ve done amazingly well.
“It’s PSG next, who are an amazing team.”
‘We have to be very proud of ourselves’, says Arteta
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told TNT Sport: “One of the best nights in my football career.
“We played against a team with the biggest history.
“To be able to win the tie in the manner we have done, I think we have to be very proud of ourselves.”
He added: “The history we have in this competition is so short. The third time in our history of what we have just done and we have to build on that. All this experience is going to help us, for sure.”
Real Madrid were seeking their third Champions League title in four seasons.
Mbappe twisted ankle
Their forward Mbappe twisted his right ankle during the game and was jeered by part of the crowd when his substitution was announced after a lacklustre performance.
The French star, who is still looking for his first Champions League title, was replaced by Brahim Diaz in the 75th minute following his injury. He was able to walk off the pitch by himself, but was limping slightly.
The other semi-final will be between Barcelona and Inter Milan.
The first legs are set to be played on 29 and 30 April, with the second legs on 6 and 7 May.
The final will be on 31 May.
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