Imagine having a stepdad who’s known all over the world. This boy’s life took an unexpected turn when his mom’s former partner, a world-famous man, married her after 35 years. It’s a story that’s captured attention and sparked curiosity about the journey that led to their union.
The boy in London on February 6, 2002. | Source: Getty Images
Since 2005, the boy’s mother has been married to his stepdad. She was part of the love triangle between the man she married and his now-late ex-wife. However, his stepdad did not stop his mother from having her own life.
His mother married his father in 1973 and had two of them. Sadly, his parents divorced in 1995. When his mother remarried, she became royalty. But that did not apply to her children. They see themselves as ordinary children.
The boy’s parents on their wedding day. | Source: Getty Images
The boy’s mother was born on July 17, 1947, to Major Bruce Shand and Rosalind, the daughter of Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe. On March 25, 1965, she became a debutante in London. She loves painting, horse riding, fishing, horticulture, and gardening.
The boy’s mother later left home and worked as a secretary for various firms in the West End before gaining employment as a receptionist by Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in Mayfair.
The boy’s mother on a horse in 1995. | Source: Getty Images
In the late 1960s, she met her ex-husband after his younger brother, Simon, introduced them, and they went on to date on and off for several years.
The boy’s mother began having an affair with this man in 1986 while still married.
When they met, her ex-husband, born December 27, 1939, was a military man who attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He served in the military for over three decades before he retired in 1995.
The boy’s father attending a party in London on November 10, 1959. | Source: Getty Images
However, when they were dating intermittently, there were rumors that he had also met and dated another person in the royal family in 1970. The person he reportedly dated was Princess Anne.
Princess Anne and the boy’s father had met at the 1970 Royal Ascot and enjoyed each other’s company. However, their relationship could never lead to marriage because he was a Catholic.
Princess Anne and the boy’s father at the Royal Ascot on June 22, 1989. | Source: Getty Images
By 1973, there was pressure on the boy’s father to commit. The boy’s maternal and paternal grandfathers published an engagement notice to make this happen. The publication forced the boy’s father to propose to his mother. They had been dating for seven years. On July 4, 1973, the boy’s parents married in a Catholic ceremony at the Guards Chapel in London.
Photo of the boy attending his father’s wedding on February 7, 1996. | Source: Getty Images
The wedding’s reception took place in St. James’s Palace. It was a pomp affair as the Queen Mother, Princess Anne, and Princess Margaret were in attendance. Before the boy’s parents married, people knew his father was never faithful, and the trend continued well into their marriage. While they were married, his father had a long-term relationship with Rosemary Pitman, whom he later married.
The boy’s father and his new wife, Rosemary Pitman, after their wedding on February 7, 1996. | Source: Getty Images
The boy’s mother also had a relationship with a royal family member after their first meeting in 1970 at a polo match. It was love at first sight, but they broke things off when the man went off to sea for the Royal Navy.
After the boy’s mother married in 1973, his now stepfather proposed to another woman on February 6, 1981, and they were married on July 29 that year. However, he and the boy’s mother maintained a very close relationship.
The boy’s father and his new wife. | Source: Getty Images
The boy’s mother began having an affair with this man in 1986 while still married. Her now ex-husband reportedly had no issues with the relationship. But the man’s wife, Diana, once said her marriage was crowded because there were three of them in it.
Unfortunately, in 1993, a full transcript of a leaked intimate phone call between the boy’s mother and his now stepfather was published, causing a massive scandal for the royal family. In June 1994, in a TV documentary about himself, the boy’s stepfather admitted to the affair on national television. This caused the boy’s father public embarrassment.
The boy’s mother and the wife of the man she was having an affair with in 1980. | Source: Getty Images
This boy’s name is Tom Parker Bowles. He was born to Andrew Parker Bowles and Camilla Shand. Camila Shand is now known as the Queen Consort of the United Kingdom. She is currently married to King Charles III.
Besides Andrew, Camilla’s son, Tom, revealed in 2014 that he was angry and remembered not looking at the paper. The papers had printed things he never wanted to read about his mother.
Six months later, Camilla and Andrew announced their divorce on January 11, 1995, while Charles and Diana finalized their divorce on August 28, 1996. On July 10, 1998, Charles and Camilla made their relationship public but made their first public appearance when Charles organized a 50th birthday party for Camilla’s sister.
In 2003, Camilla and Charles moved in together at Clarence House, announced their engagement in February 2005, and married 35 years after their first meeting on April 9, 2005.
During her marriage to Andrew, Camilla had two children. Her oldest child is Tom. He was born on December 18, 1974, and the youngest, Laura Lopes, was born on January 1, 1978. Tom, born Thomas Henry Charles Parker Bowles, is a successful food writer. He has King Charles as a godfather and a stepfather.
Queen Camilla and her children, Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, in London on July 5, 2000. | Source: Getty Images
After school, he developed a passion for food journalism, which stemmed from his passion for food. He is also a food critic and author of over five cookbooks.
Tom married fashion editor Sara Buys on September 10, 2005, after they had dated for several years. He is also a part of his mother’s book club, “The Reading Room.”
Sara Buys and Tom Parker Bowles’s wedding on September 10, 2005, in Rotherfield Greys, England. | Source: Getty Images
After over a decade of being together, Tom and his wife split in 2018. At the time, they said their separation was not final, and they would not be getting a divorce.
Like her brother, Laura attended a Catholic boarding school before attending Oxford Brookes University, where she obtained a double degree in Art History and Marketing.
Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Parker Bowles at the Royal Wedding of their mother and stepfather in Winsdor, Great Britain, on April 9, 2005. | Source: Getty Images
She works as an art curator, was employed by Tatler, managed The Space Gallery, and co-founded London’s Eleven Fine Art Gallery in 2005. On May 6, 2006, Laura, who keeps a relatively low profile, married a former Calvin Klein model-turned-chartered accountant, Harry Lopes.
Harry Lopes and Laura Parker Bowles after their wedding at St Cyriac’s Church on May 6, 2006, in Lacock, England. | Source: Getty Images
Camilla became a part of the royal family when she married Charles, but her children did not. In an interview, Tom said:
“We’re the common children, you know; we’re just on the side.”
However, Tom is very close with Charles, has always adored him, and sees him as a man of warmth, intelligence, and humanity. He also says his stepfather is a kind, good, and lovely man.
Queen Camilla and her grandson, Freddy Parker Bowles, on the Buckingham Palace balcony in London, following her coronation, on May 6, 2023. | Source: Getty Images
Queen Camilla is also a proud grandmother of five. Her oldest grandchild, born in 2007 to Tom and his wife, is Lola. She is followed by Eliza, born on January 16, 2008, to Laura.
Camilla’s third and fourth grandchildren are a pair of fraternal twins, Gus and Louis, born to Laura on December 30, 2009. Her last grandchild, Frederick, was born to Tom in 2010.