Both Camilla Parker-Bowles and Kate Middleton are outsiders who married into the royal family – and one day both women will be Queen consorts of the future kings of England, Prince Charles and Prince William respectively.
However, despite their obvious similarities, it would appear as though the Duchess of Cornwall thinks herself a cut above her daughter-law.
Don’t believe us? Take a look at Camilla scolding Kate at the Order of the Garter
Express.co.uk has unearthed a 2016 report from Christopher Andersen, author of Game of Crowns, revealing that 71-year-old Camilla once thought Kate “too common” to be a member of the Royal Family, thus propelling the duchesses into a long-running royal rift.
“I was in London when the breakup [of William and Kate] occurred. I was shocked, completely stunned, everyone thought it was only a matter of time before William was going to ask Kate to marry him,” Andersen told The Daily Beast.
“And then people started telling me that Camilla was behind it,” he continued, before explaining that Camilla is a bit of a snob and quite simply didn’t think Kate was of a high enough pedigree to one day be Queen of England.
“She’s [Camilla] an aristocrat, she has always been moving in Royal circles.
“She had always thought of herself as the heiress to Alice Keppel, her great-grandmother, who was the mistress of Edward VII.
“She was very proud of that connection, she boasted about that as a child and as an adult and that’s what she intended to be; part of the Royal circle in the role of mistress to the future king, and then the king.
“She did not look at Kate as someone who was worthy of joining the Royal Family. Kate is the first working-class woman to be accepted into the Royal Family.
“She is descended from coal miners and her mother was a flight attendant.
“So for all those reasons Camilla never really felt that Kate Middleton as an individual and the Middleton family as a whole were going to be worthy of entering into the Royal Family.
“I was told at the time of the breakup, and later on as well, that Camilla basically whispered in Charles’s ear that it was really time to make—to force—William to make a decision one way or the other.”
Kate very well may have been descended from coal miners, but her upbringing was distinctly privileged, attending a private boarding school before going on to study at the prestigious St Andrew’s University, where she met Prince William.
Camilla, meanwhile, endured years of scandal surrounding her affair with Charles during his marriage to the late Princess Diana. Charles and Camilla would eventually go on to marry in 2005 in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.
William and Kate went on to have three children together, prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis following their 2011 wedding at Westminster Abbey.
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