Royal Family News: Is Camilla Parker Bowles Really A Step-Monster To Prince William And Prince Harry?

British royal family news reveals that blended family dynamics are always tricky, especially when your parent’s affairs, and subsequent relationships are played out on a world stage. Such was the case for the late Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ sons Princes Harry and William.

Prince Charles had an affair with and then married Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005. How did Princes William and Harry adjust to their new stepmother?

According to a source close to William, he reportedly said, “She got her claws into my dad and never let go for an instant. That’s why my mom died — because she fled to Paris instead of being safe with her family.”

There Is No Love Lost Between Princes William And Harry And Stepmother Camilla?

Royal author Nicholas Davies, a former polo-playing acquaintance of Charles had this to say of the situation: “I doubt if William or Harry were formally introduced to Camilla. To Diana’s boys Camilla was probably just another face in the crowd, a friend of their parents. The boys were often photographed with visitors, so posing with Camilla probably didn’t mean a thing to them at the time. William hadn’t a clue then that she was his father’s mistress but by the time he was 16 he’d heard the gossip — and he was no fool.”

According to reports, Camilla and Prince William met for the first time in July 1998, when he “popped home” unannounced on his way to see a movie. William was a 16-year-old resident student at Eton College, and when he asked Charles why Camilla was there, Charles reportedly said Camilla was, “his dear friend” and that they’d all be seeing her regularly in the future. “You can meet her if you like — your choice.”

Prince William Very Unexpectedly Met Camilla At His Home

Caroline Graham wrote in her book, Camilla: Her True Story, that later William, “took tea alone,” with Camilla soon after their first meeting, then met her a third time for lunch with his father. Graham says the story about the cozy lunch was planted in British newspapers to show that William didn’t object to his father living with Camilla right after Diana’s death.

Camilla’s first public test was in November 1998, hosting Charles’ 50th birthday party at Highgrove. One inside source claims she, “attempted to ingratiate herself,” with both William and Harry.

Hundreds of guests applauded Prince William’s speech and his stepmother-to-be, but Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip were absent. Apparently Philip was openly hostile to Camilla and worried about how William and Harry would respond to her.

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