The “cruel” letter Camilla sent Prince Charles that broke his heart
After dating Camilla Shand for six months, 24-year-old Prince Charles was forced to put his relationship “on hold” as he went on tour as part of the Royal Navy.
In March 1973, the heir to the throne was in the West Indies when he learned the devastating news that Camilla was going to marry another man.
Royal spectators have previously revealed that the royal family put pressure on Camilla and Charles to end their relationship as they didn’t think the daughter of a British Army major was a suitable match for the future king.
However, Charles was said to be devastated when 25-year-old Camilla wrote him a letter to let him know that she said yes to tying the knot with her on-again-off-again boyfriend Andrew Parker Bowles.
Royal author Penny Junor described Charles’ heartache in her biography of Camilla, The Duchess: The Untold Story.
“She wrote to Charles herself to tell him. It broke his heart," she wrote.
Charles, who is described as a “prolific letter-writer”, responded to the devastating news by sending letters to his family and friends.
"He fired off anguished letters to his nearest and dearest," Juror wrote.
"'It seemed to him particularly cruel', he wrote in one letter, that after 'such a blissful, peaceful and mutually happy relationship' fate had decreed that it should only last a mere six months."
Charles was upset that he had “no one” to go home to when he returned to England.
"I suppose the feeling of emptiness will pass eventually," Charles wrote.
Charles then went on to date Amanda Knatchbull, who later rejected his proposal in 1979.
The now 70-year-old then started courting Lady Diana Spencer in early 1980.
When Charles and Diana married in July 1981, Camilla had already been married to Andrew for eight years and had two children, Tom and Laura.
However, both marriages eventually ended in divorce, with Camilla splitting from her husband in 1995.
One year later in 1996, Charles and Diana’s marriage officially ended.
In 2005, Charles and Camilla finally married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.