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Q. Did Andrew Parker Bowles stay the night at the palace?
Q. 
A. HE DID
In June 1970 he was Princess Anne’sdate during Ascot Week and reportedly stayed at Windsor Castle. “The princess and the galloping major were said to have enjoyed a full-blown affair during Ascot Week that year,” writes royal historian Robert Lacey
inThe Crown 2. Of course, any suggestion they shared a bed is speculationon the part of the show.
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Q. Did Charles think Camilla was ‘the one’?
A. HE DID
Charles made repeated attempts to be with Camilla,against the wishes of those around him. He even begged her to leave her husband Andrew Parker Bowles in 1979 when he was grieving the sudden loss of his close uncle and mentor, Lord Mountbatten.
Camilla refused because the resulting scandal would force Charles to renounce the throne.
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Q. Did Mountbatten and the Queen Mother conspire to keep the couple separate?
A. IN A WAY
While there’s no proof of a plan, it’s no secret that Lord Mountbatten wanted his nephew to marry his granddaughter Amanda Knatchbull.
The Queen Mother, meanwhile, pushed Charles towards the granddaughters of her close friend and lady-in-waiting, Lady Ruth Fermoy. Her tactics eventually worked. Prince Charles eventually dated Lady Sarah Spencer in 1977, which is how he met her younger sister and his future bride, Lady Diana Spencer.
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Was the Queen pro–Camilla?
A. POSSIBLY
Had the Queen given her son the go-ahead to marry Camilla, things may have ended differently. But it’s more likely she stayed out of his love life– unlike her meddling relatives, who steered the future king in the direction of other “more suitable” women.
There was also the question of Camilla’s ancestry for the Queen to consider. Even though her maternal grandfather was
a baron, Camilla did not come from a sufficiently aristocratic background to make her a serious contender for a future queen.
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Q. Did the royal family send Charles on an overseas navy posting in a bid to break HIMup with Camilla?
A. YES
“Mountbatten started to worry that his honorary grandson was getting too serious with his ‘mistress material’, and, according to author Sarah Bradford, he arranged a distant naval posting to help things cool down. Towards the end of 1972 it was announced that the prince would be joining HMS Minervaon a sixto eight-month commission in the West Indies,” writes Lacey. It’s reportedthat he asked Camilla to wait eight months for his return, but his absence provided the perfect setting for her to reconnect with her former beau.
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Did the royals push Camilla and Andrew PARKER BOWLES together?
A. POSSIBLY
Andrew’s parents were long-time friends of the Queen Mother, and he himself was part of the Queen’s official bodyguards. However, it was Camilla’s father and brother, who had grown tired of Andrew’s dithering, who placed an engagement notice in The Times, finally forcing him into popping the question.
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Did Camilla break up with Charles over the phone?
A. NO, SHE SENT A ‘DEAR JOHN’LETTER
In her book The Duchess: The Untold Story, royal biographer Penny Junor writes that Camilla broke the news to Charles by letter in 1973.“She wrote to Charles herself to tell him. It broke his heart.”
The prince, who was stationed in the West Indies,wrote backasking how Camilla could so abruptly put aside “such a blissful peaceful and mutually happy relationship”.
“I can see I shall have to find myself a wife pretty rapidly, otherwise I shall get left behind and feel very miserable,”
a heartbroken Charles wrote in a letter to a friend after the breakup.
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Q. Did Charles enlist Lord Mountbatten’s help in convincing the family about Camilla?
A. HE DID
In an edited extract from his book The Crown 2, royal historian and The Crown advisor Robert Lacey writes: “The approval of ‘Dickie’ Mountbatten, Charles’‘honorary grandfather’, was a crucial step in the right direction.During Charles’ naval courses at Portsmouth the prince was permitted to stay at Dickie’s nearby Hampshire home, Broadlands, instead of bunking at the officers’ mess, and Uncle Dickie was delighted for Camilla to join the party.
To keep up appearances, she was allotted the Portico Room– the same room in which Elizabeth and
Charles was
“When Uncle Dickie approved of Camilla, that was the final seal of approval as far as Charles was concerned,”explained John Barratt, Mountbatten’s private secretary for many years.
But there was a catch involving Amanda Knatchbull, Mountbatten’s 14-year-old granddaughter, forwhom theold man had long-term plans. “Mountbatten knew Camilla would make a perfect mistress for Charles until Amanda was of marriageable age,” says Barratt. “So he gave the blossoming love affair his full blessing.”
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Q. Did Camilla break up with Charles over the phone?
A. NO, SHE SENT A DEAR JOHN LETTER
In her book, The Duchess: The Untold Story, royal biographer Penny Junor writes that Camilla broke the news to Charles by letter in 1973.
“She wrote to Charles herself to tell him. It broke his heart.”
The Prince, who was stationed in the West Indies wrote back, asking how Camilla could so abruptly put aside “such a blissful peaceful and mutually happy relationship.”
“I can see I shall have to find myself a wife pretty rapidly, otherwise I shall get left behind and feel very miserable,” he wrote to Lord Mountbatten.
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