Princess Diana's marriage to King Charles has been well-documented, as has the monarch's relationship with Queen Camilla. Early in Diana and Charles's romance, the princess was photographed spending time with Camilla, leading many to wonder why the pair had been communicating with one another. According to one royal biographer, the reason might be more straightforward than many initially believed.
In the new book Divide and Rule: Royal Women and Their Battles, author Catherine Mayer explores Diana and Camilla's unexpected meetings.
"Diana interpreted her rival's overtures of friendship towards her during this period as intelligence gathering," Mayer writes. However, the royal biographer is sure that there is much more to the story.
"Camilla seems unlikely to have taken on such a mission unilaterally," Mayer explains. "A more plausible theory, suggested by sources with some knowledge of these events, is that Charles saw Camilla as the person best placed to induct his fiancée into his life."
Considering the illicit nature of Charles and Camilla's relationship during certain periods of time, the suggestion that The King might have orchestrated the meetings might sound a little scandalous. However, there might have been some common sense behind the alleged idea.
As Mayer notes, "After all, [Camilla] knew [Charles] and his ways intimately. If accurate, this is the detail among all others that comes closest to crossing the line from the disordered impulses common to such situations to something colder."
Per the author, "Even if Charles, at this stage, lacked the emotional intelligence to grasp how misguided the idea was, you might have expected Camilla to demur."
Of course, it remains unclear whether Charles did, in fact, ask Camilla to befriend Diana and teach her how to navigate royal life. Either way, it seems that Camilla remained an integral part of Charles's life from the moment they met.
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