King Charles could not 'shield' William and Harry from 'embarrassment' of Camillagate
This must have been an excruciating moment for King Charles
The royals have faced a plethora of royal scandals, but one that has surely stuck in the minds of King Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry, has to be Camillagate.
“But what is Camillagate?” you ask. Keep reading as we take you back to 1993 when King Charles’s extra-marital affair hit the headlines.
King Charles’s Camillagate drama and what it meant for William and Harry
As reported by the Daily Mail: “In January 1993, a six-minute, 1,574-word transcript of the then-Prince of Wales speaking to Camilla four years prior was leaked to the press in a sordid controversy dubbed ‘Camillagate.'”
The conversation was rather explicit and definitely not for public consumption. In it, then-Prince Charles, who was still married to Princess Diana, told Camilla he wished to be “reincarnated” as her “tampon”.
Unsurprisingly, this scenario stunned listeners for all the wrong reasons.
It also left William and Harry in very awkward positions.
Royal author Robert Lacey said of the ordeal: “There could be no shielding William and Harry from the ear-nose-and-toe-cringing embarrassment of ‘Camillagate.'”
The fall out of Camillagate
As per reports, the conversation was reportedly captured by an “amateur radio enthusiast”.
He later “sold the recording to a little-known Australian New Age magazine”.
The transcript was published on January 17, 1993. This scandal sent shockwaves through the media, as well as The Firm.
“The ensuing scandal also sparked calls for Charles, then 44, to step down from the succession in favour of his eldest son, then 10-year-old Prince William,” the Daily Mail stated.
In her book, The Palace Papers, Tina Brown said: “It’s excruciating to imagine what kind of Tampax-related ridicule of his father William endured.”
As for Charles and Camilla, Brown explained that: “The Camillagate tape robbed the two lovers of any cover at all.” She went on to say: “The brutal exposure ended any murmuring mystique around the status of ‘royal mistress’ and reduced it to something that sounded furtive and squalid.”
The phone call reportedly took place in 1989, when Charles was married to the late Princess Diana and Camilla to her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles.
What is Camillagate?
The conversation took place on December 17, 1989, where the pair could be heard having a steamy conversation as well as discussing the logistics of sneaking around.
The press printed out the transcript verbatim. They even set up a phone number people could call to listen to the actual recording.
Charles later admitted in a 1994 documentary that he had been unfaithful in his marriage. However, he said it was after their relationship had “irretrievably broken down, us both having tried”.
During the six-minute phone call Charles and Camilla famously joked about Prince Charles being reincarnated as a tampon.
Camilla laughed: “What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers? Oh, you’re going to come back as a pair of knickers.”
Charles then joked: “Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just my luck! My luck to be chucked down a lavatory and go on and on forever swirling round on the top. Never going down.”
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