Prince Harry and Prince William expressed hesitation to their father, King Charles, about his wish to marry the future Queen Camilla, the Duke of Sussex wrote in his memoir Spare.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary on April 9, though Prince Harry said in his groundbreaking memoir that he and William were skeptical about the idea of their marriage.
The Duke of Sussex, now 40, explained that he and his brother were resistant to the idea of their dad getting married following Charles’ divorce from their mother, Princess Diana, in 1996 and her death in 1997. Camilla Parker Bowles, as she was known then, had long been in the picture, as she and then-Prince Charles had an affair that overlapped with their first marriages. Princess Diana once memorably said, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” and Harry wrote that he and William worried about the scrutiny a union would bring when Charles asked them about it.
“Willy and I agreed that Pa deserved better. Apologies to Teddy [the King’s childhood teddy bear], Pa deserved a proper companion. That was why, when asked, Willy and I promised Pa that we’d welcome Camilla into the family,” Prince Harry wrote in Spare. “The only thing we asked in return was that he not marry her.”
Prince William and Prince Harry.
Anwar Hussein Collection/ROTA/WireImage
“You don’t need to remarry, we pleaded. A wedding would cause controversy. It would incite the press. It would make the whole country, the whole world, talk about Mummy, compare Mummy and Camilla, and nobody wanted that,” he wrote, referencing Diana. “Least of all, Camilla. We support you, we said. We endorse Camilla, we said. Just please don’t marry her. Just be together, Pa.”
Prince Harry said that his father didn’t respond, adding that Camilla “began to play the long game, a campaign aimed at marriage.”
More than 35 years after they first met, then-Prince Charles and Camilla announced their engagement in February 2005 and tied the knot that April. The couple legally married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall and the civil ceremony was followed by the religious blessing of a Service of Prayer and Dedication at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on April 9, 2005.
Then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles depart Windsor Guildhall on their April 9, 2005 wedding day.
ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP via Getty
Prince Harry and Prince William were among a few select guests who attended both events, though their grandmother Queen Elizabeth strategically appeared at only the second. As the head of the Church of England, Queen Elizabeth felt it was inappropriate for her to attend the civil wedding of two people who had been divorced as the head of the Church of England.
Though she and Prince Philip opted out of the civil ceremony, they showed support for Charles and Camilla’s marriage by attending the religious blessing and hosting a festive reception at Windsor Castle after. Camilla became known as the Duchess of Cornwall and eventually fulfilled Queen Elizabeth’s “sincere wish” of being Queen upon Charles’ accession in September 2022.
Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!
Prince Charles and his new bride Camilla with their families, in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle on April 9, 2005.
Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis/Getty
Exclusively speaking to PEOPLE about Spare around its release, the Duke of Sussex shared what he hopes his family takes away from his memoir.
“I don’t want to tell anyone what to think of it and that includes my family. This book and its truths are in many ways a continuation of my own mental health journey,” Prince Harry said in 2023. “It’s a raw account of my life — the good, the bad and everything in between.”