Charles and Camilla Celebrate First Anniversary
April 9, 2006 — -- Prince Charles and his bride, Camilla Parker Bowles, were longtime lovers who finally made it to the altar, but the memory of Charles' first wife, Diana, hung over the proceedings, at least for the British public.
In the buildup to the wedding a year ago, newspaper writers compared Camilla to a horse. But Charles' sons, William and Harry, accepted their new stepmother and, gradually, the British people are following suit.
"She was never going to try and rival Diana on the glamour front," said Tom Bradby, an Independent Television News correspondent. "That would have been completely absurd to do so. There's something about Camilla that is actually quite British. She's quite unshowy, kind of gets on with it, not the most glamorous person in the world. But people who know here like her. And that, I think, is beginning to work for her."
Last fall, Charles and Camilla took their first official foreign trip together to the United States. Charles never looked happy overseas with Diana. But with Camilla, who bears the title of the Duchess of Windsor, Charles relaxed and maybe even enjoyed himself.
Remember Diana famously alone in India all those years ago? Back in India this month Charles lovingly helped Camilla when she missed her chair.
"They're quite touching together," said Damian Whitworth of the Times of London, who followed the couple on the India trip. "It's all, 'Darling this, darling that, oh darling you do that so nicely. The way you pruned that little hedge is lovely; you planted that so well.' And it's quite sweet. It's quite touching."
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