Their relationship has often been one that is seen in a negative light with the press and the public because of their initial affair which led to the end of his marriage to Princess Diana. However, while she was determined to become Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla Parker Bowles came very close to not attending her 2005 wedding.

According to the book, “The Duchess-The Untold Story,” biographer Penny Junor revealed that the Duchess of Cornwall nearly missed her big day with Prince Charles after she came down with a bout of illness the morning of her nuptials.

“Camilla was not well on the day of the wedding,” Junor wrote, according to Express UK. “All that week she had been at Ray Mill House suffering from sinusitis. Several friends had come to see her and they had had girly evenings in their dressing gowns, while Lucia Santa Cruz, who had introduced her to Charles all those years ago, came to administer homemade soup.”

“In Chile, everything is cured by chicken soup, she’d told her friend, and had made her eat it,” she continued. “She was terrified Camilla wasn’t going to get to the wedding, she was really ill, stressed.”

As it turned out, the Duchess needed some extra help really getting to the wedding the day of because of how sick she had been, but on the day, the problem was seen more like nerves than the initial illness which had been plaguing her.

“On the day itself it took four people to coax Camilla out of bed,” Junor said. “She’d spent Friday night at Clarence House with Annabel and Laura. She still wasn’t feeling well, but now it was more nerves than sinusitis that kept her under the duvet. She was terrified.”

In the end, the Duchess was able to make it to her civil ceremony and went on to marry Charles. The couple is still happily wed 14 years later, and have seen the weddings of their own children and welcomed several grandchildren together as well. A few months after their wedding, her son, Tom, also married. Her daughter, Laura Lopes, was wed one year after. They welcomed four children among them, Lola, Eliza Gus and Louis through 2009.

Prince Charles’ own kids, Prince William and Prince Harry, married their wives, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, in 2011 and 2018 respectively. They are also now parents, with William and Kate welcoming Prince George in 2013, Princess Charlotte in 2015 and Prince Louis in 2018, while Harry and Meghan became first-time parents earlier this year to their son, Archie Harrison.

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles
Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles look at each other as they reopen the newly-renovated Edwardian community hall The Strand Hall during day three of a visit to Wales on July 4, 2018 in Builth Wells, Wales. Getty Images/Chris Jackson
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