Prince Charles pleaded with Camilla not to marry her first husband

Prince Charles was reportedly so distraught when he heard the news of Camilla’s first wedding that he begged her not to go through with it.

According to an extract from royal author Penny Junor’s book, The Duchess, Charles tried to talk Camilla out of the whole thing but his efforts were in vain.

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Camilla is reported to have been dating Andrew Parker Bowles for seven years when she met Charles and it’s thought the royal family believed she wasn’t aristocratic enough to be the wife of the future King.

Just weeks after Camilla met Charles, the prince left on an eight-month trip with the navy and while he was in the West Indies he got a letter from Camilla announcing her engagement.

“It seemed to him particularly cruel, he wrote in one letter, that after ‘such a blissful, peaceful and mutually happy relationship’, fate had decreed that it should last a mere six months,” royal biographer Penny Junor wrote.

“He did have one last-ditch attempt to get Camilla to change her mind, however. At the end of June 1973 — the week before the wedding — he wrote asking her not to marry Andrew.”

According to a segment in the book, Andrew was actually seeing Charles’ younger sister Anne before he married Camilla but as he was a catholic, it never could have worked out.

Camilla was said to be madly in love with Andrew and she immediately accepted his proposal in 1973, despite the fact that Prince Charles had fallen for her.

Unfortunately, Prince Charles’ pleading fell on deaf ears and Camilla and Andrew were married in July 1973, with Andrew’s ex, Princess Anne, Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother all in attendance.

While Charles was devastated, he and Camilla eventually began to meet up in secret and embarked on a now famous love affair.

Camilla and Andrew eventually divorced in 1995 and she and Charles went on to marry in 2005 - over 44 years after the first met.

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