King Charles and Queen Camilla attend the Animal Ball
Queen Camilla has come a long way from being the “third person” in King Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage to sitting on the throne.
Hers and Charles’s love has endured over the years, culminating in their tying the knot in 2005. Since then, she has gone from being dubbed the “laziest woman in England” to a hardworking royal.
This year, she took on a great responsibility alongside her husband and was officially crowned Queen.
As Queen Camilla celebrates her 76th birthday, Express.co.uk takes a look at her life through pictures.
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A picture of Camilla taken in the year 1955 to 1965 (Image: Getty)
Camilla holding hands with her little sister Annabelle (Image: Getty)
Born on July 17, 1947, in London, Camilla Rosemary Shand grew up in a small village in the South Downs, East Sussex living in a sprawling home called The Laines which was sold for £3.5million in 2015.
The oldest of three siblings, Camilla went to the nearby Dumbrell’s School and enjoyed a childhood she once described as “perfect in every way”.
The new Queen then studied at Queen’s School in Kensington before being sent to finishing school in both Switzerland and France.
Throughout her teenage years, she visited several countries but always returned home to East Sussex.
Camilla talking to Charles at a polo match (Image: Getty)
Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973 (Image: Getty)
Over the years, she worked as a receptionist and was reportedly fired from designer firm Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in the Sixties for coming in late having been out partying the night before.
She was a passionate horse rider and, much like Charles, loved painting but admitted that most of what she produced “ended up in the bin”, according to Imogen Taylor’s 2016 work On The Fringe – A Life In Decorating.
She began seeing the then Prince Charles when they were in their early Twenties having met at a polo match.
It seems it was love at first sight as Jonathan Dimbleby once described the now King as “losing his heart to her almost immediately”.
Camilla and Andrew, pictured here in 1992, divorced in 1995 (Image: Getty)
Camilla’s two children Laura and Tom pictured in 1997 (Image: Getty)
According to Sally Bedell Smith, writing in her biography Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life the Royal Family would not let them marry.
Ms Smith claims Camilla was at the time perceived by the Firm as an “experienced” woman which meant she was not a “suitable” spouse for the then heir to the throne.
As Charles’s uncle and mentor Lord Mountbatten wrote to him: “Lovely for you two to have a fling, but this absolutely cannot end in marriage.”
During this time, Camilla had been dating Andrew Parker Bowles on and off, and after seven years, in 1973, they tied the knot.
Charles and Camilla pictured in 1979 (Image: Getty)
Diana walking with Camilla in 1980 (Image: Getty)
Charles was devastated, writing to Lord Mountbatten: “I suppose this feeling of emptiness will pass eventually.”
Andrew had his own ties to the Royal Family, as his parents were friends with the Queen Mother and he was reportedly a page at Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation.
Additionally, the Queen Mother, Princess Anne and Princess Margaret were all at the reception held in St James’s Palace.
Together, they had two children, art curator, Laura Lopes and food writer and critic, Tom Parker Bowles, whose godfather is King Charles.
Meanwhile, the King tied the knot with Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 before going on to have two children, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Camilla and Charles’s intimate conversation was leaked to the press (Image: Getty)
Charles and Camilla pictured on their wedding day in 2005 (Image: Getty)
Camilla and Andrew were married until 1995, but he is alleged to have had affairs and she too continued to see Charles as Princes Diana famously told the BBC’s Martin Bashir: “There were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded”.
A year after Diana’s death in 1997, Camilla and Charles made their relationship public and in 2003, they moved into Clarence House together.
Camilla and the new Monarch tied the knot in 2005, having a civil ceremony, a first for the Royal Family, at Windsor Castle.
Camilla was named as Queen Consort by the late Queen (Image: Getty)
Camilla and Charles meeting the public during a walk in St Ives, Cornwall (Image: Getty)
Not only is she step-grandmother to Prince William and Prince Harry’s children but she also is grandmother to five through her own children.
Her son Tom has two children, Lola and Freddy, and her daughter Laura has three kids, Eliza and twins Louis and Gus.
Unfortunately, she does not see them as often as she’d like, as she told the Daily Mail in 2017: “I would like to have more time with them but, you know, it’s the nature of the beast. I can’t. But every given opportunity, I see them.”
Upon the late Queen’s 70th anniversary, she announced it was her “sincere wish” that Camilla become Queen Consort and therefore referred to as Queen.
And in May this year, she was crowned at Westminster Abbey alongside her husband.
She will now continue to support Charles, attending public engagements and charity events while also being the Counsellor of State.
However, she will not be receiving the £359,000 annual lump sum the Duke of Edinburgh did up until his death, according to the National Audit Office.
