[custom_adv] Camilla Shand is born on July 17th, making her 16 months older than Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, born November 14, 1948. The daughter of a British Army officer, Camilla grows up socializing with royals (her childhood home was recently for sale) and attends Queens Gate school in London and finishing schools in Switzerland. [custom_adv] Charles and Camilla meet for the first time at a polo match at Windsor Great Park, a royal park. They discover that they both love polo and the outdoors and have the same sense of humor. Camilla jokes about the fact that her great-grandmother had had an affair with King Edward VII, saying, “My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great-grandfather. [custom_adv] In July, Camilla marries Andrew Parker Bowles, an Army cavalry officer seven years older than she is—and who had previously dated Prince Charles’s sister, Princess Anne. They go on to have two children, Tom and Laura Parker Bowles. Charles and Camilla are still friends—in fact, Prince Charles becomes Tom’s godfather. [custom_adv] Charles proposes to Diana on February 6. (One report suggests that he popped the question in Camilla’s garden.) After the news breaks on February 24, he makes a slightly jarring comment when a television interviewer asks him and Diana if they’re in love. [custom_adv] Diana blushes and says, “Of course;” Charles adds, “Whatever love means.” But he sounds more smitten in newspaper interview at the time: "I feel positively delighted and frankly amazed that Di is prepared take me on." [custom_adv] On July 29, with an estimated 750 million people watching around the world—and with Camilla reportedly in attendance—they marry in St. Paul’s Cathedral. They have two sons, Prince William, born in 1982, and Prince Harry, born in 1984, but their relationship soon becomes rocky.
