Queen Camilla has lived within the royal sphere for decades. However, for many years, she was an outsider, despised by millions of royal fans after her affair with Charles became a reality.

Now, things are pretty different as Camilla has become the backbone of the royal family, taking on huge responsibilities as her husband, King Charles, had to step aside due to his cancer treatment. Meanwhile, the king and queen might be heading into a legal battle – as one man claims to be their firstborn son.

An Australian man, who said he was adopted when he was only eight months old in Portsmouth, UK, claims Charles and Camilla are his parents. He has compared pictures and researched his past – and now, he plans on bringing the royals to justice.

King Charles and Queen Camilla’s relationship dates back to 1972 when they first met at a polo match.

In the book Charles and Camilla, Portrait of a Love Affair, author Gyles Brandreth claims that Charles and Camilla were introduced by their mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz, the daughter of the Chilean ambassador.

King Charles & Queen Camilla

The couple dated for a while but stopped when Charles left to serve in the Royal Navy. By the time he returned, Camilla was engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.

Bowles and Camilla married in 1973, though Camilla maintained a close and friendly relationship with Charles. The now-king then started dating 19-year-old Diana Spencer in 1980.

When Diana was introduced to the Bowles couple, Camilla thought the young lady was “sweet and cute” and approved of her. At first, Diana and Camilla got along well. Soon, however, things grew uncomfortable.

“I met [Camilla] very early on. I was introduced to the circle, but I was a threat, I was a very young girl, but I was a threat,” Diana explained in the book Diana: In Her Own Words.

According to Prince Charles’ authorized biography, as quoted by Town & Country, Charles and Camilla’s affair started in 1986. Charles was still married to Princess Diana at that point. She found out about it – and confronted Camilla.

What happened in December 1989 pretty much confirmed that they had been having an affair for years.

Just months after Charles and Diana formally separated, the press published a full transcript of a telephone call between the then-future King and Camilla.

The phone call revealed an intimate and sexual exchange between the couple. But, according to The Diana Chronicles, the person who recorded it had kept it to themself for years.

The scandal involved the future king – just hearing him say things like “live inside her trousers” was wholly unexpected and considered inappropriate. According to Sally Bedel Smith, author of the biography Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern March, a poll was released shortly after the transcript was published.

Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said that then-Prince Charles had destroyed his reputation, and 42 percent even thought Prince William should become the monarch after Elizabeth.

But all that happened didn’t only hurt Charles. Camilla also received her fair share of criticism, both from the public and Royal Family members.

The phone call that took place in 1989 more than confirmed that Charles had engaged in an affair with Camilla while still married to Diana. It also proved that Camilla had cheated on her husband, Andrew Parker Bowles.

Heartbreaking reason why Prince Harry gave Camilla this cruel nickname
In 1994, in an interview with Jonathan Dimbelby, Charles revealed that he had been unfaithful to Diana. The Princess herself had spoken about it by this stage – but it was the first time Charles had confirmed the rumors.

At that point, the identity of Prince Charles’ mistress had yet to be confirmed. Finally, it became clear that it was Camilla when Jonathan Dimbelby released the authorized biography about Charles, published in the Sunday Times later the same month.

“That they loved each other was not in any doubt. In Camilla Parker Bowles, the prince found the warmth, the understanding, and the steadiness for which he had always longed and had never been able to find with any other person,” Dimbelby wrote.

Camilla was afraid of leaving her house after affair with Charles became public
Camilla’s path to royal life was more than bumpy. Sadly, the now-queen had to endure a lot of abuse from the public, which even led to her not daring to leave her house.

Speaking with OK Magazine, royal expert Angela Levin, author of the 2022 book Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: A Royal Survivor, Camilla had to endure “torrents” of mistreatment from the public as the affair was revealed

“It was very difficult for her, as she was portrayed as the most wicked woman in the world. She was constantly called nasty names like ‘rottweiler,’ and it must have come as a huge shock that people were so vile about her,” Levin said.

It has been reported Charles himself paid for Camilla’s security, hiring two full-time protection officers. However, when they married in 2005, she qualified for publicly funded security, and Charles no longer had to pay them out of his pocket.

Levin said, “I don’t think Charles realized how awful it was for her. He was often away on engagements and working hard for the country and Commonwealth, and at the time, Camilla didn’t have protection officers because she wasn’t part of the Royal Family. But when Charles finally realized, he did get protection for her, which he paid for himself.”

Queen Camilla praised as a “remarkable asset” to the royal family

Camilla became increasingly popular among the public as the years went by. Today, she is one of the most famous members of the royal family, and after King Charles received his cancer diagnosis, she took on a tremendous amount of responsibility.

While Queen Camilla is known not to love life in the spotlight, she has put all her energy towards serving The Crown. For example, she doesn’t like giving speeches, but as King Charles wasn’t there, she did it.

Some weeks ago, Camilla was the sole representative of the royal family, attending the Easter service at Worchester Cathedral while Charles continued his cancer treatment.

In a segment on GB News America, royal expert and former correspondent Charles Rae praised the queen for supporting King Charles and Kate Middleton in this troublesome time, calling her a “remarkable asset.”

Rae explained that Queen Camilla has “proven herself” in recent years, not least because of how she was treated after Princess Diana’s death in 1997.