Charles’ affair with Camilla while he was married to Princess Diana and she to Andrew Parker Bowles became a scandal that rocked the monarchy. It damaged Charles’ relationship with Diana to the point that the pair separated in 1992 after 11 years of marriage, and divorced less than four years later. However, according to 2017 Channel 4 documentary ‘The Royal House of Windsor’, the Queen Mother had actually enabled the affair by allowing them to use her Scottish home to meet in secret.

The narrator said: “The Queen Mother allowed the couple to use her Scottish home as a bolthole.” 

Historian Dr Piers Brendon explained that the Queen Mother simply wanted to avoid a scandal, because of her experience of the abdication crisis.

By giving them a place to meet discreetly, they could avoid the story getting out.

He told the documentary: “The Queen Mother was relatively broad-minded – she didn’t mind Charles having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles provided that this did not become a scandal.

“And this is what worried her because she had seen what happened in the abdication crisis, where a private matter had blown up into something that had practically wrecked the monarchy.” 

Back in 1936, King Edward VIII had caused a constitutional crisis when he decided he wanted to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

He abdicated the throne to do this, meaning his younger brother became King George VI and his wife became Queen Elizabeth – later the Queen Mother.

It has been reported that at the time the Queen Mother was furious her life had been turned upside down by her brother-in-law’s decision.

She was determined that her daughter Elizabeth and grandson Charles would tow the line and marry well to prevent this sort of crisis ever happening again. 

When it came to Charles, Camilla was seen as an inappropriate bride – partly because she had dated other men before, whereas Diana was just 19 at the time of engagement, and reportedly a virgin.

However, Charles’ feelings for Camilla did not go away, causing him to chase a romance with her even after he married to Diana.

The documentary narrator said: “Once again, he turned to his grandmother for support over his marital difficulties.

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“He also turned to the woman Diana thought was the cause of their problems – Camilla Parker Bowles, whom Charles had loved since he was 24.

“Like the Queen Mother, she gave him unconditional love.

“Unlike Diana, she was happy to remain in the shadows, not stealing the limelight.”

Indeed, Charles was rather put out by the level of attention Diana got from the press and public, and he felt sidelined for the first time.

Camilla, meanwhile, was perfectly happy for their relationship to stay secret.

Royal biographer Christopher Wilson insisted Camilla had never intended to marry the prince when they started their affair. 

He told the documentary: “Camilla saw life as Charles’ mistress as a bit of fun, something that would never be made public and would probably continue for as long as she was sexually active.

“I don’t think there was ever any ambition on her part to advance herself to become the wife of the Prince of Wales.”

Of course, eventually their infidelity would contribute to the breakdown of both their marriages. 

Camilla divorced her husband in 1995 and Charles divorced Diana in 1996. 

After the tragic death of Diana in a car crash in Paris in 1997, Charles and Camilla gradually made their relationship known both to the Royal Family and to the public.

They finally married in 2005 at a small civil ceremony at Windsor Castle and from then on Camilla was known as the Duchess of Cornwall, based on Charles’ secondary title.

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