- Camilla Parker Bowles's husband, Andrew, is introduced in The Crown season 3, but is not in season 4 of The Crown.
- Andrew, a military officer played by actor Andrew Buchan, also dated Princess Anne in 1970. And from there, things got pretty complicated.
- Here's what you need to know about Camilla's husband before she married Prince Charles.
The third season of The Crown depicted one of the most notorious incidents in the royal family's personal lives: The sticky love quadrangle between Prince Charles, Camilla Shand, Andrew Parker Bowles, and Princess Anne. The fourth season, out November 15, shows what happens when Princess Diana is added to the mix.
If you need a quick refresher, Prince Charles and Andrew both had relationships with Camilla in the '60s, and Andrew briefly dated Princess Anne in 1970. Eventually, however, Camilla married Andrew, divorced him, and later married Prince Charles, following the death of his late ex-wife, Princess Diana. Andrew and Princess Anne married other people, remaining amicable.
And while season 3, which takes places between the '60s and '70s, informs us about Prince Charles, Camilla, and Princess Anne, there's not much chatter about the other man in the Camilla equation: her ex-husband, Andrew. He doesn't appear in season 4 at all.
He's played impeccably by actor Andrew Buchan, known for his role in the British drama Broadchurch as Mark Latimer. As for how Buchan compares to his real-life counterpart, here's a side-by-side of the two for comparison.
Now, let's take a closer look at the actual Andrew and the details of this affair.
Andrew Parker Bowles is a military veteran.
Andrew served in the military for 35 years until he retired in 1995. According to the Animals in War Memorial Fund (of which he is vice chairman), he was an officer in the Household Calvary and the Royal Army Veterinary Corps. As for how he was able to infiltrate the royal circle? According to Vanity Fair, the Queen Mother was close friends with his father, and Andrew was even a page boy at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.
Yes, Andrew Parker Bowles and Princess Anne dated.
In episode eight of The Crown's third season, "Dangling Man," we see the pair first cross paths during a flirtatious meeting at a party. The officer comments that the princess looks "flowered," while she instructs him to stop "gawping" at her. Of course, they tumble into bed together. Andrew consequently warns Anne "I don't want you to get hurt," because of his hot-and-cold relationship with Camilla. She blows off his concern with a direct, "I won't get hurt."
While we learn in episode nine that their relationship ended at some point, there's no way of knowing if the previously mentioned intimate details actually happened. But what's been confirmed? Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told Vanity Fair the two actually met at the 1970 Royal Ascot and started dating in June of that year.
“Anne and Andrew enjoyed each other’s company, but they could never marry because he was a Catholic,” Smith said. And though another royal expert, Penny Junor, said Andrew was "unusually smitten" with the princess, by the time Camilla and Prince Charles started seeing each other in 1972, Andrew and Anne's relationship was done. However, the now-retired military officer and princess remain close friends and were last pictured together publicly in March 2019.
The royals didn't conspire to have Andrew and Camilla get married.
After first meeting in 1965, Andrew and Camilla started a seven-year on-and-off relationship that was marred by the military officer's repeated infidelity—frequently with Camilla's close friends.o
But in spite of his 1970 fling with Princess Anne, and her own affair with Prince Charles, Andrew, then 33, and Camilla, then 26, married in July 1973. The ceremony was a premiere society event that took place at St. James Palace. The Queen Mother, Princess Anne, and Princess Margaret were each guests. Junor wrote of the couple:
"She foolishly believed that leopards can change their spots and her heart belonged to Andrew, the man so many women had wanted but whom she had successfully bagged. He thought he was everything she looked for in a man and he would give her everything she had dreamed of.
He was an alpha male, sophisticated and experienced. She liked the fact that he was a cavalry officer, as her father had been, and that like her father, who had won the Military Cross twice, he was brave."
But unlike how it was depicted in The Crown, episode nine "Imbroglio," the royal family had nothing to do with forcing the union in hopes of separating Camilla and Prince Charles. Smith told Vanity Fair that the queen would never interfere in such a situation.
“The only people who were plotting were Camilla’s and Andrew’s fathers, Bruce Shand and Derek Parker Bowles,” she told the publication. They “were tired of Andrew’s foot-dragging. They were the ones who got together and published an engagement announcement in the Times on March 15, 1973. Once that happened, Andrew was forced into proposing. But it wasn’t because of anyone in the royal family.”
But Andrew's affairs continued throughout their marriage, with Camilla soon reigniting her notorious relationship with Prince Charles, despite him being married to Princess Diana. Eventually, Andrew and Camilla divorced in 1995, but remain close friends to this day.
Andrew has two children with Camilla.
The former couple share two kids: Tom, who was born on December 18, 1974, and Laura Lopes, born on January 1, 1978. And yes, Tom and Laura are now Prince Harry and Prince Williams's step siblings, since Camilla and their father, Prince Charles, married in 2005.
With Tom as a successful food writer, and Laura working for an art gallery, they live relatively private lives. In August, Tom told Good Morning Britain they're "not quite part of the royal family to be honest."
He continued: “My mother married into it. She’s part of it. We’re the common children. We’re just on the side.”
Andrew and Camilla also share five grandchildren, as Tom has two kids and Laura has three. Laura's youngest daughter, Eliza, was even a bridesmaid at Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding.
Andrew did eventually re-marry.
A year after his divorce from Camilla, Andrew married Rosemary Parker Bowles in 1996. The couple lived happily until Rosemary's death from cancer in January 2010. She was 69 years old.
“She has had a long battle with cancer and has been fighting it extremely hard,” said Henry Pittman, Rosemary's son from a previous marriage. “She was very pleased to have made Christmas and then Andrew’s birthday, his 70th, just after Christmas, and subsequently the birth of his grandchildren."
He came down with the coronavirus in 2020, along with Prince Charles.
Andrew and Charles were both were affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
In March 2020, Andrew tested positive for COVID-19. He told The Telegraph he believed he caught the virus at the Cheltenham Festival, a racing festival that takes place annually in mid-March. Around the same time, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Charles tested positive with the coronavirus. Prince William kept his positive diagnosis hidden from the public, per the BBC. All are now fully recovered.
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McKenzie Jean-Philippe is the editorial assistant at OprahMag.com covering pop culture, TV, movies, celebrity, and lifestyle. She loves a great Oprah viral moment and all things Netflix—but come summertime, Big Brother has her heart. On a day off you'll find her curled up with a new juicy romance novel.
