Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles's Parents Announced Their Engagement Before He Even Proposed

Andrew Parker Bowles played a significant role in The Crown's third season as a skilled polo player who turned the head of not only the future Queen Camilla, but also a young Princess Anne. In real life, he recently made headlines when he formally represented Camilla at a funeral.

Parker Bowles is less of a prominent focus in The Crown's next chapter, which premieres November 9, but if you're curious about the real-life story of Camilla's ex (who just so happens to be close with Princess Anne as well), read on:

Andrew Parker Bowles was born in December of 1939 to a family with royal connections.

His parents were friends with the Queen Mother, and he reportedly served as a page at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953.

He is a military man.

Andrew attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and would go on to serve in the military for 34 years, eventually rising to the position of brigadier. Notably, he was also awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery in Zimbabwe.

Parker Bowles was first introduced to Camilla by his younger brother Simon.

To most people, Andrew Parker Bowles is best known as Camilla's first husband. The pair first met in the late 1960s and proceeded to date on and off for several years. In 1973, as Prince Charles's biographer Sally Bedell Smith, writes, "pressure was building on Andrew Parker Bowles to make a commitment."

And so eventually, according to Andrew's cousin John Bowes Lyon, his father, Derek Parker Bowles, and Camilla's father, Bruce Shand, published an engagement notice in The Times for their children. "His hand publicly forced, Andrew proposed to his girlfriend of nearly seven years," Smith writes.

"Camilla was very much in love with [Andrew]," Bowes Lyon told Smith. "Her parents were very keen that Andrew should marry her."

He and Camilla were married on July 4 of 1973 in a Catholic ceremony at the Guards Chapel in London.

It was quite the society wedding. The Queen Mother, Princess Anne, and Princess Margaret were all in attendance, and the reception took place in St. James's Palace.

Camilla and Andrew went on to have two children together, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles. Notably, Tom is not only Prince Charles's stepson, but also his godson. Camilla and her ex-husband also have five grandchildren together, one of whom, Eliza, was a bridesmaid in William and Kate's 2011 wedding.

By the sounds of it, Camilla's grandkids are quite fond of Prince Charles, and in particular his rendition of Harry Potter.

"Sometimes when we are with my husband in Scotland, he reads them Harry Potter," she told the Daily Mail in 2017. "And he does all the voices, because he is a brilliant mimic. I'm not very good. I try to do the voices, but acting isn't my forte. But he sits down and they all sit with him. I always think they are going to be wriggling around in bed, but they sit spellbound."

Parker Bowles reportedly had a relationship with Princess Anne.

The third season The Crown depicts a complicated scenario in which Camilla has feelings for both Prince Charles and Andrew Parker Bowles. It also suggests that Andrew has slept with both Camilla and Princess Anne.

There could be a grain of truth to Peter Morgan's depiction of events. According to Smith, Anne and Andrew did have a relationship, but given that he was Catholic, he wasn't marriage material for Anne.

"Even when their romance eventually wound down, they remained lifelong friends," writes Bedell Smith noting that they had much in common, most notably a love of horses.

He also serves as godfather to Princess Anne's daughter Zara.

Following Andrew's divorce from Camilla in 1995, he married Rosemary Pitman.

The couple announced their divorce in January of 1995 in a statement, saying that the end of their marriage was "a private matter." They did not give a specific reason for the end of their relationship, only noting that "throughout our marriage we have always tended to follow rather different interests, but in recent years we have led completely separate lives."

The following year, Andrew married Rosemary Pitman. They were together until Rosemary passed away in 2010 of cancer. At the time of her death it was reported that Camilla was "deeply saddened" by the news.

Now, Andrew keeps a relatively low profile, but he is seen from time to time with the royal family at events. Often, he's photographed speaking with his longtime friend, Princess Anne. In October 2022, he also formally represented Queen Camilla at a funeral for John Bowes-Lyon. This was not first time Andrew Parker Bowles represented the royals at a funeral; in the past, he has represented Princess Anne on at least five different occasions, according to the Court Circular.

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