Some weeks later, the tragic death of Princess Diana left the launch of the new couple on ice. But while official royal engagements were still off the cards, the pair made their public debut in 1999, when they were spotted leaving a birthday party at The Ritz. Matters escalated in 2003, when Charles and Camilla moved into to Clarence House together, and two years later they announced their engagement on 10 February 2005, with a ring that once belonged to the Queen Mother.
Then came the wedding. Charles and Camilla were married in a civil ceremony on 8 April 2005. Neither Queen Elizabeth nor Prince Philip were in attendance when the pair tied the knot (three decades after they had first met), but the wedding was marked by Charles and Camilla’s children from their previous marriages: Princes William and Harry and Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles.
Nearly two decades later, and Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, was granted the ultimate seal of approval by Her late Majesty. At the time of their wedding in 2005, there was much public outcry over the issue of whether or not Camilla would ever be Queen Consort (no, went the line, she would be Princess Consort). But in 2022, just ahead of her Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth let it be known that she wanted her son’s wife to have the title, a true call to legitimise her in the eyes of the monarchy (and, perhaps, the world) once and for all.