And, indeed, her brother and sister were very appealing too. What is her reputation or the public's sense of her as a person?īROWN: Always wildly attractive, tremendously earthy, fun, absolute catnip to men at all times - you know, Camilla really was. PFEIFFER: I've always thought of Charles as sort of a stiff, kind of awkward person, although he's grown into his role over the years. So her whole - her circle was always extremely upper class, bumping up against royals in every conceivable shape and form. So she always was raised in the extremely sort of aristocratic milieu of a country debutante, if you like, in - on the Sussex Downs.

Her father was a major - very, very, extremely well-regarded veteran hero, actually, in the Second World War. Remind us of her background, separate from Charles.īROWN: Well, Camilla comes from a very upper class squirearchy kind of a background. PFEIFFER: For Americans who are not obsessed with the royals and who might know Camilla mainly for her role in the breakup of King Charles' - then-Prince Charles' - first marriage. Tina Brown wrote 'The Palace Papers: Inside The House Of Windsor,' and she's on the line to talk with us about Camilla's winding journey. And this Saturday, she will officially have a new title - queen.

Over the past several decades, the one-time Camilla Parker Bowles has been known as many things - wife of the rakish brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, girlfriend of the heir to the throne, but most of all, the other woman in what turned out to be the not-so-fairy-tale marriage of Charles and Diana.

On the Fringe by Courtney King Walker