Princess Anne’s Fling With Andrew Parker Bowles Exposed!

Everyone knows the tangled web that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles weaved before, during and after his ill-fated marriage to the People’s Princess, Diana. What isn’t as well known is that his sister, Princess Anne, also figures into the delicate situation.

How so? Anne dated Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s ex, prior to Charles and Diana’s marriage. Does this mean a messy royal scandal was brewing between the dating couples? Not so fast, let’s set the record straight!

Did Charles’ relationship with Camilla overlap with Anne and Andrew’s?

Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith spoke to Vanity Fair in an effort to set the record straight about what transpired between the royal siblings and Anne and Andrew in the 70s. According to her, Charles’ relationship with Camilla most definitely did not overlap with Anne and Andrew’s fling.

This assertion comes in light of recent versions of this complicated pair of relationships which imply that Andrew and Camilla dated the royal siblings during the same time period.

Camilla and Andrew wed in 1973, and their relationship had been running hot and cold for years prior to their eventual engagement. During this tumultuous time Camilla dated Charles, and Anne dated Andrew.

Anne and Andrew started dating in June 1970 and this went on for years

Although the relationship reportedly never became serious, Andrew and Anne remain close to this day. In fact, Andrew is the godfather of Anne’s daughter, Zara.

According to Bedell Smith, this romance was over by the time that Charles and Camilla’s love connection took off in 1972. Charles and Camilla, “were introduced by mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz, who told me about inviting them over for a drink at her flat in London. Prince Charles also told Jonathan Dimbleby that Lucia introduced them in 1972.”

“Charles fell madly in love with Camilla, but to her, it was a fling – he was the Prince of Wales.”

Prince Charles was shocked that Camilla married Andrew

Royal writer Bob Colacello told Vanity Fair that poor Charles experienced a “double shock” while he was abroad after finding out that both Camilla and Anne were to marry.

“That spring Charles, who had been faithfully writing to Camilla and receiving reassuring replies, received a double shock: Princess Anne was going to marry Captain Mark Phillips, and her sometime beau, Andrew Parker Bowles, had finally proposed to Camilla, who had accepted.”

Tellingly, Camilla and Charles resumed their relationship in 1978 after the birth of her youngest child. And, the rest is history.