King Charles III and Queen Camilla have figured out the secret to a successful marriage, and it may have something to do with where they sleep.
“They have known each other since [they were] very young and are great friends. There is no competitive edge between King Charles and Queen Camilla,” British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard told Fox News Digital. “Devoted Queen Camilla totally supports her husband in everything he carries out (although she would like him to slow down work wise slightly).”
Chard added, “They have also sussed out the best sleeping arrangements. At Clarence House, they are privileged to have their own bedrooms as well as their shared bedroom.”
Not only do the couple have separate bedrooms, but they also stay in separate homes for some healthy alone time on occasion, according to royal experts.
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Chard told Fox News Digital, “They are both independent people. They don’t live in each other’s pockets, spending a healthy chunk of their time apart in their country homes.”
She added, “Camilla enjoys time with her many friends and family and Charles values private work and creative time.”
Royal biographer and Majesty magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward said the royal couple actually “spend quite a lot of time apart,” with Camilla going to her country home, Ray Hill, in Wiltshire each weekend, according to The Sun.
The home “is Camilla’s sort of release from royal life, if you like,” Seward said. “Before she married Charles, she made a pact with him that she would keep Ray Mill house as her bolthole. She goes every weekend when she can, and she goes during the summer so that she can spend some time with her grandchildren and her children, and it’s something that’s away from the whole royal world.”
Seward said that Camilla often doesn’t go with the king to his Gloucestershire estate, Highgrove, at all, “unless she and Charles are entertaining together.”
She said that Camilla escapes to Wiltshire because “she needed somewhere where she could actually relax and just be herself, and slope around in dirty jeans if she wanted to, and not be constantly monitored.”
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Charles, likewise, will often go to Highgrove or Sandringham while she’s at Ray Mill, but they spend the week together in London at Clarence House.
The royal couple is celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary this week, and they shared photos during their state visit to Italy, looking loved-up during a photo shoot at a villa in Rome.
“As we begin our first visit to Italy as King and Queen, we are so looking forward to celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary in such a special place – and with such wonderful people! A presto, Roma e Ravenna!” the couple shared on their Royal Family social media account on Monday.
Charles and Camilla finally married on April 2, 2005, after decades of forbidden love.
“Charles and Camilla’s colorful love story began in the ’70s, although they didn’t tie the knot until 2005,” Chard told Fox News Digital. “They are a match made in heaven and are celebrating 20 years of married bliss. However, life wasn’t always as peachy.”
She said Camilla was Charles’ first love, but she married British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973 and Charles famously went on to marry Princess Diana in 1981.
Their marriage was “complex, fraught, full of trials and tribulations,” Chard said. “Trouble started brewing pretty much at the beginning of their marriage, largely due to a third person in their marriage, namely Camilla Parker Bowles.”
“Scandal ensued,” she added. “She was loathed by the general public and named every negative scathing name in the universe. She was known as ‘the Rottweiler’ to the late Princess Diana. However, even Princess Diana eventually realized that Camilla was the only woman for Charles. She recognized that Camilla was Charles’ rock. In a funny way, she made her peace with Camilla as she recognized Camilla brought out the best in Charles.”
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The late Queen Elizabeth II gave her blessing for Charles and Camilla to marry in 2005, which they did in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.
Both of Charles’ sons, Princes William and Harry, attended their father’s wedding. The queen didn’t attend the ceremony but she and Prince Philip were at a St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle for the Church of England Service of Prayer and Dedication after the nuptials.
“They have come through, and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves,” the queen reportedly said at their wedding reception.
The wedding came nearly a decade after Charles’ divorce from Diana and her untimely death.
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Eventually, public sentiment toward Camilla softened.
“If a book was released about Charles and Camilla ‘from scandal to well-respected monarchs,’ sharing tips on their now perfect marriage, the book would fly off the shelves,” Chard joked. “Everyone is after a bit of their special gold dust and, as such, it is definitely the hot topic of conversation.”
She added, “Everyone who comes into contact with Queen Camilla mentions what a lovely, big-hearted, generous person she is. She is a strong, straight-forward character and gets on with things without fuss. She is known for her great conversational skills and has a similar ethos to King Charles. She wants everyone to feel included and part of the bigger picture. At private and public events, she makes sure she engages in a relaxed fashion with as many people as possible and always takes time to wave and smile at the camera.”
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams called the relationship a “marriage of two minds.”
“Over the five decades since they first met in 1970, they have experienced so many highs and lows together, and this last year must surely have been ‘brutal,’ to use Prince William’s descriptive term for a year in which both he and Catherine were diagnosed with cancer,” he told Fox News Digital.
Fitzwilliams said that “It is commonly accepted that they have both benefited enormously from being of similar age, sharing the same sense of humor, having the same friends and, broadly, a similar outlook on life.”
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Royal expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital that the couple’s relationship had “navigated a remarkable, highly orchestrated, journey from scandal-plagued beginnings and public loathing to their current roles as appreciated sovereigns.”
“What they shared, especially in their early years, but what has also endured, are their mutual love of horse country life, rural passions in general with her earthy humor bringing him down to earth,” she said. “To this day, they maintain separate residences (Clarence House and Ray Mill) while presenting a united public front. Perhaps this unusual domestic separation has assured their endurance.”
