15 Things You Might Not Know About Camilla, the Woman Who Stole Prince Charles's Heart

Camilla was born on July 17, 1947. She was the eldest child of Major Bruce Shand and his wife Rosalind Cubitt.

The Duchess of Cornwall has two children from her first marriage to Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles: Tom, 43, and Laura, 40.

Charles and Camilla have known each other for a very long time and have always been very close. So close, in fact, that she asked the prince to be her son Tom's godfather.

Since her marriage to Prince Charles in 2005, Camilla has become patron or president of over 90 charities. While her work is varied, she is mostly interested in health, literacy, supporting victims of rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, empowering women, food, animals, and heritage and the arts. We have a feeling she and Meghan Markle will have plenty to talk about.

Camilla started adulthood as a secretary for a variety of firms in London's West End, and she was later employed as a receptionist by the decorating firm, Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.

The pair was introduced at a mutual friend's event in 1971 by none other than Charles's college girlfriend, Lucia Santa Cruz. They began dating almost immediately, but split right before Charles left for the Royal Navy. When he got back eight months later, Camilla was engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.

As it turns out, Prince Charles and Princess Diana's unhappy marriage could have been avoided if it hadn't been for Camilla's father.

Charles had fallen for Camilla almost a decade before his wedding to Diana. As Camilla's longtime on-again-off-again boyfriend Andrew Parker Bowles was out of the country on army service, the two began spending more time together and struck up a romance. However, Charles was 24 years old at the time, and on top of worrying that he might have been too young to settle down, Camilla didn't "appear virginal," which meant that she would not have been considered marriage material.

As Charles set sail for the Caribbean in January 1973, Andrew came back to London — and that's when his brother and Camilla's father conspired to make them marry. According to author Sally Bedell Smith, who wrote the biography Prince Charles, the two men published an untruthful engagement notice in The Times on March 15, which forced Andrew to propose to his girlfriend of nearly seven years.

While Charles had a very big and very publicized first wedding, he kept things relatively simple when he married Camilla. Because he and Camilla were both divorced, they had to marry in a civil ceremony, which was a first for the royal family. It took place at Windsor Castle, with Prince William and Camilla's son as witnesses, and was followed by a religious blessing at St George's Chapel. While the queen chose not to attend the civil marriage, she did attend the religious blessing and then hosted a reception in honor of the couple.

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Charles and Camilla's relationship was first made public in 1999, but she didn't meet Queen Elizabeth II until 2001, when she attended the 60th birthday party of the former King of Greece, Constantine II. As for William and Harry, she met them in 1998.

When Charles and Camilla made their relationship public following both their divorces, the Prince of Wales was very aware of the fact that they were receiving a lot of negative publicity. As a result, he employed Mark Holland to enhance Camilla's public profile — Holland had previously worked with Charles to refurbish his own image following his divorce from Princess Diana.

When Camilla married Prince Charles in 2005, she gained a new family and a few shiny new royal titles, including the one of Princess of Wales — however, she has never formally used the distinction out of respect for its previous holder, Princess Diana. Instead, Camilla chose to take the feminine form of her husband's title, Duke of Cornwall, which also belonged to Diana during her marriage but is less associated with the late princess.

When Charles takes the throne, it is thought that he'll go by the regal name King George VII. While the wife of a king generally gets the title of queen, Clarence House had announced that Camilla would one day be known as princess consort instead. "It is intended that Mrs. Parker Bowles should use the title HRH The Princess Consort when The Prince of Wales accedes to The Throne," the statement read. However, Charles will have the power to upgrade Camilla to queen consort if he so desires.

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