Prince Charles
By Sally Bedell Smith
Random House, 624 pp., $42
The Prince of Wales has spent a lifetime waiting, which is what one does if Mummy is the Queen and the longest-reigning British monarch on record. But, as biographer Sally Bedell Smith notes in her new book, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, the heir has spent much of his life eclipsed by others.
“For a few hours in a ballroom in steamy Sri Lanka, Charles was the centre of attention, and he clearly savoured the spotlight,” wrote Smith, who attended a 2013 meeting of Commonwealth leaders to watch the prince in action. “Back home, he was often put in the shade by his revered mother, by his dazzling son Prince William and his beautiful wife, Catherine, by their son Prince George (and, later, Princess Charlotte), by William’s enormously popular brother, Prince Harry, and by the memory of Diana, fixed in time at age thirty-six as the tragic and beloved Princess of Wales. Closer to his destiny than ever, Charles had become a shadow king-in-waiting.”
And what of the queen-in-waiting, the Duchess of Cornwall? No mention of her on Smith’s list, even though she accompanied Charles to that meeting. But then the former Camilla Parker Bowles has always seemed to pull back from the spotlight, content to let Charles shine in a way his family never could.
Yet, as Smith’s biography makes clear, Camilla’s impact on Charles has been considerable, first as his mistress in an on-again, off-again relationship that spanned decades and the end of both their marriages, and then as the second wife whom the prince married in 2005. So, while this is very much a biography about Charles, the reader will find Camilla woven throughout much of the story.
Smith is well-suited to write this book. A biographer whose subjects have ranged from Kennedys to Clintons, she’s also the author of Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess (1999) and Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch in 2012, the 60th anniversary of the queen’s ascension to the throne. She knows the royal turf, so to speak.
Smith describes Camilla at age 66 (the duchess turned 70 on Monday) as “more handsome than pretty, with high cheekbones, lines and furrows befitting her age, and a strong jaw.” The biographer goes on: “It seemed to me that what she lacked in classical beauty, she made up for with the expressiveness of her eyes and the play of mischief in her smile. Her low and husky voice hinted at Marlboros and gin.”
Marlboros and gin! I mean, what’s not to like?
Plenty, according to public opinion polls taken in 2015 around the time of the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary.
One study cited by Smith said 35 per cent of respondents were against Camilla being queen, but another survey found 55 per cent said Camilla shouldn’t be queen — and 57 per cent thought Charles shouldn’t be king. The question still remains whether Camilla will become queen when Charles becomes king or will she, as was announced at the time of the wedding, be called “princess consort,” a title never used before.
“Despite all the progress she had made, Camilla continued to pay a price for her affair with Charles and the breakup of his marriage to Diana,” Smith wrote.
The prince’s second wife has been harshly blamed for the failure of that first marriage, especially by the first wife, but I think the Duchess of Cornwall’s steadfast loyalty to Charles over the decades deserves some credit even if, in Smith’s words, “she had been the subject of scandal and controversy” in his life.
I suppose it’s ironic Charles is getting short shrift in this story, especially as it was sparked by his biography. But I don’t think he’d mind the slight, and might even admire the irony. For while Charles infamously replied “Whatever love means” when asked if he was in love when his engagement to Diana was announced, there’s no need to ask the question when it came to Camilla. As the Queen herself noted in remarks at their Windsor Castle wedding reception in 2005: “They have come through, and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.”
