The True Story of Charles, Camilla, Anne, and Andrew's Scandalous Love Quadruple in 'The Crown'
Season Three of The Crown introduces us to a young Prince Charles (played by Josh O’Connor) and his first love Camilla Shand (Emerald Fennell) at the start of their turbulent decades-long relationship. It also shows Camilla’s longtime on-and-off boyfriend and first husband of 22 years, Andrew Parker Bowles (Andrew Buchan), romantically involved with Princess Anne (Erin Doherty), Charles' sister. Episode Nine, "Imbroglio," outlines this royal romantic entanglement, and shows senior royal family members meddling to unmatch Charles from Camilla over concerns about her relationship with Andrew. However, The Crown has dramatized the enmeshed love lives of the royal siblings—here's the true story.
Did the royal family really try to break Camilla and Charles up?
Although they did not approve of Camilla as a match for Charles due to her commoner status, there is no evidence that the Queen Mother or Lord Mountbatten orchestrated a breakup of the couple like the episode shows. While Lord Mountbatten did have military influence, it isn’t true that Charles was lifted early from Navy training to be sent to the Caribbean. In fact he had recently completed his training and was expected to be assigned to a ship.
Royal biographer Christopher Wilson says the Queen Mother never liked Mountbatten and “always treated him with suspicion,” which makes the close conspiring we see between them in the episode hard to believe.
Who is Andrew Parker Bowles?
Andrew Parker Bowles was a career British Army officer until his retirement in 1994. His family ran in royal circles as his parents were close friends of the Queen Mother, and he really did play polo with Prince Charles in the ‘70s and ‘80s like we see in The Crown.
Camilla Shand met Parker Bowles in the late ‘60’s and they dated on and off for about five years before she met Prince Charles at a polo match in 1971. Soon after, Charles was sent off to the Caribbean, and Camilla married Parker Bowles in 1973. The Queen Mother did indeed attend Camilla and Andrew’s wedding as a friend of the family, but it is highly doubtful that she orchestrated it as she does in Episode Nine. The couple stayed married for 22 years despite an ongoing affair between Camilla and Charles.
Did Princess Anne date Andrew Parker Bowles?
Princess Anne did in fact date Andrew Parker Bowles briefly in 1970, presumably while he was on a break with Camilla. But this was before Camilla and Prince Charles met, so the crossover between Charles’ relationship with Camilla and Anne’s relationship with Andrew depicted in The Crown is fictional.
Anne’s romantic relationship with Andrew was short lived, but they remain close to this day. It turns out that Andrew Parker Bowles is the godfather of Anne’s daughter Zara, and Prince Charles is the godfather of Andrew and Camilla’s son Tom. That is—he was Tom's godfather, before he became his stepfather in 2005 when Camilla and Charles finally wed. As The Crown conveys, they certainly like to keep it all in the family.
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