With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to assume that Princess Diana and Camilla Parker Bowles – now Duchess of Cornwall – were always arch nemeses. We know, after all, that Prince Charles was always in love with the latter, and that he continued to explore a relationship with her even after he married Diana. But with the new series of The Crown looking at the beginning of Charles and Diana’s courtship, it’s clear that the two women weren’t at each other’s throats. In fact, they really did meet for lunch.
In 1981, Diana - played in the series by Emma Corrin - moved into Clarence House. Later, she told biographer Andrew Morton that she found a note on her bed: it was from Camilla - played by Emerald Fennell - with the offer of lunch. Diana accepted the invitation. Later, Diana would remark that she believed Camilla was using the meal as an opportunity to scope out the competition. The same book describes Diana’s sadness on discovering that Charles had given Camilla a bracelet, weeks before the wedding. It was engraved with the letters G and F.
Why? Some believe it referred to an apparent nickname – Girl Friday – but Diana believed that it was an in-joke: Charles and Camilla are alleged to have called each other Gladys and Fred.
Obviously, it all went really wrong when Diana realised with certainty that her husband was, truly, in love with someone else. In 1989, she decided to confront Camilla at her sister Annabel’s birthday party, showing up unannounced. Andrew Morton’s biography explained that she remained ‘deathly calm.’ ‘The voice inside me had said, “just go for it,”’ Diana recalled. ‘I said, “I know what's going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that.”’ Camilla, Diana claims, responded with a ‘very interesting’ question.
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‘She said to me, “You've got everything you ever wanted. You've got all the men in the world fall in love with you and you've got two beautiful children, what more do you want?” ‘So I said, “I want my husband.”’
Honestly, we bet that was even more dramatic in person that the fictionalised world The Crown presents.