Here's How Prince William Allegedly Feels About Camilla Becoming Queen
Queen Elizabeth II shocked the world on Sunday, February 6, 2022 — as she celebrated her 70th anniversary on the throne — when she made the official announcement that Camilla Parker Bowles, Prince Charles' second wife, would be called queen consort when Charles ascends to the throne (via CBS News). When Charles and Camilla first married in a civil ceremony in 2005, the queen didn't even attend, but she did give Camilla the title the Duchess of Cornwall. However, Camilla was never expected to be called queen, but rather princess consort.
How Charles and Camilla came to be married is the stuff of soap operas and was filled with scandal, as Charles and Camilla had been involved before he married Diana Spencer, later known as the Princess of Wales. They also carried on an affair while Charles and Diana were married, something they both admitted happened before their eventual divorce in 1996. With Camilla known as the other woman for years before she officially became a member of the royal family, royal watchers were curious how Diana's children would react to their grandmother's latest announcement about Camilla. After all, had their parents never divorced and Diana had never died, she would have become queen consort when Charles becomes king.
William is supportive of his grandmother's decision about Camilla
Prince William reportedly had a hard time accepting his father's new wife in the beginning, but Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles have been married for well over a decade and feelings have cooled through the years. "None of this can have been easy for him," an insider explained to the Daily Mail.
The source also said that, although Prince William was not involved in the decision-making process regarding his grandmother's decision about Camilla's title, he would have made sure to give his blessing.
"His relationship with the Prince of Wales is better than it ever has been. He is not particularly close to his stepmother but they get on perfectly well and are quite the blended family now," the source said. "He also respects his grandmother and her judgment more than anything in the world. If it is right for her, then it will be right for him."
Prince William wasn't always in Camilla's corner
While Prince William is supportive of his step-mother Camilla Parker Bowles one day being known as queen consort, per his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II's announcement, it was reportedly a long road for William to get to a place where he could feel this way about a woman his father had an ongoing affair with while still married to his mother, the late Princess Diana.
According to author Penny Junor, who wrote "Prince William: Born to be King," Camilla never tried to take Diana's place, but that didn't really matter to her sons at one time. "I think the relationship between them all is warm now but if I'm honest, it wasn't then. I think they found it hard," she wrote (via The Mirror). "To be fair to Camilla, she never tried to be mummy but she was the 'other woman' and she was there and taking daddy's time."
In fact, the relationship between both of Charles' sons with his new wife was said to be downright brutal.
Royal family squabbling came as a surprise to Camilla
Even Camilla Parker Bowles was taken aback at how Prince William felt about her when she first married Prince Charles in 2005, and "Battle of the Brothers" author Robert Lacey chronicled it in his book. "In the years after her 2005 marriage to Prince Charles, Camilla has recounted to her own family and close friends her surprise at discovering this unexpected side to Prince Charming – 'the boy's got a temper!'" Lacey wrote (via Express). "Charles's wife had been horrified at the ranting and raving that on occasion William had unleashed against her husband in her presence."
The Daily Mail confirmed what Lacey wrote when a royal source described the same kind of relationship, as well as hostility between William and Charles. "There were huge family rows in the early stages of Charles and Camilla's marriage as everyone found their feet," the source said. "William didn't have the best relationship with his father back then. But he sees that Camilla had made his father happy and it is something he has come to terms with."
Perhaps the saying time heals all wounds has turned out to be true in the case of William and his step-mother, Camilla.