The Reason Queen Elizabeth Didn’t Stop Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles Affair

Prior to his marriage to Princess Diana, Prince Charles was completely smitten with Camilla Parker Bowles. However, years before their affair ever made headlines, the two reportedly carried on an extramarital affair that Queen Elizabeth did nothing to stop.

According to a 2002 article written by Graham Turner in the Daily Telegraph, one of Elizabeth’s staff members informed her of Charles’ affair with Camilla. Rather than act, the Queen reportedly didn’t feel the need to stop her son, who was a single man at the time.

Turner claims Prince Charles began his affair with Camilla in 1973 while she was married to Andrew Parker Bowles. Queen Elizabeth’s former secretary, Lord Charteris told the writer the monarch “made no comment, and her face didn’t change in any way” when she learned about her son’s affair.

A former royal aide suggested Elizabeth most likely chose not to address Charles’ affair because she didn’t believe his behavior wasn’t hurting the royal family. “The news wouldn’t have surprised the Queen at all,” the palace employee revealed.

“Her reaction would have been that that was a natural thing for an eager young man to be doing. I can remember her commenting about someone else on another occasion: ‘If he’s got a mistress, so what?’”

In his article, Turner noted that Queen Elizabeth would typically reprimand her children if she saw them acting inappropriately in her presence.

However, she was used to others stepping in to correct her offsprings when necessary. “The fact that the Queen and Prince Philip were not hands-on parents left the field wide open for other hands,” he added.

Although Prince Charles and Camilla eventually divorced from their spouses and married in 2005, Charteris suggested things may have worked out differently if Queen Elizabeth addressed the affair the moment she learned about it. “Yet, if she’d taken a stronger line at that point, things might have been very different 20 years later,” he stated.