Watching Season 4 of The Crown on Netflix, I was reminded of a phenomenon which I wonder about sometimes -- in some "Love Relationships" -- are the two people in it because they want to be together, or because they want to escape from something or prove something to someone else, or to themselves? Or, both -- or all of the above...?
A You Tuber whose videos I listen to sometimes calls it an "emotional getaway car" when a person wants a romantic relationship because it helps them put some other emotional pain behind them.
emotional getaway car
("Follow that car!")
OK, breaking down the Prince Charles stuff -- two sets of info, the first one general-basic; the second, more detailed.
General-basic
Prince Charles was supposed to marry some innocent young girl who would give birth to an heir, to follow Charles' eventual reign. This was his duty, because of who he is.
First, however, as a free-dating young bachelor-prince in his twenties (1970s), Charles met Camilla Shand, a woman his own age from the "minor aristocracy." He liked her and got along with her really well. They had a lot in common. He wanted to propose marriage to her, but his family and Lord Mountbatten (don't ask) advised him that he could not marry Camilla because her family was not aristocratic enough, and she was not inexperienced in the dating department.
Charles was pointed toward Lady Diana Spencer and encouraged to take the plunge into romance, marriage, and royal duty.
Charles and Diana married in 1981.
They didn't get along, for a variety of reasons:
Charles resented his parents and the regiment of royal advisers telling him what to do, and kind of turned that resentment on Diana, once he was "stuck with her."
Diana realized even before the wedding that Charles was still emotionally connected to Camilla -- phone calls, buying her jewelry, etc. She would ask Charles about the Camilla relationship, and get upset about it.
Charles and Diana: nothing in common.
12-year age difference
Throughout the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles continued his friendship / affair with Camilla.
Eleven years of the royal marriage.
1992 - Diana and Charles separate.
1996 - They divorce.
[End of "General-basic."]
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When I was a child, I remember people would sometimes continue a story by saying the phrase, "Meanwhile, back at the ranch..."
In this story it would be, "Meanwhile, back at the palace..."
Or -- "Meanwhile, back at the Highgrove estate..."
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Part 2 - More Detailed, with Motives
OK -- here's another timeline, running concurrent with the first, basic one.
~ 1972 -- Charles and Camilla Shand meet. They hang out.
Charles is happy.
Camilla is -- happy to hang with His Royal Highness, The Prince Of Wales, whilst she waits for Andrew Parker Bowles to propose.
~ 1973 -- Camilla marries Andrew Parker Bowles -- she has known him seven years, and was intensely in love with him.
It's sort of -- Charles enjoys being with Camilla because he loves her. While Camilla enjoys his company, plus he's the Prince of Wales, so there's that added-value of "status."
So, while Charles was away serving in the British Navy for eight months, the
Camilla Shand - Andrew Parker Bowles
wedding takes place.
From
1973 (Camilla's marriage) - [Diana turned 12, that year]
to
1981 (Diana-Charles marriage) = 8 years.
During those eight years Camilla and Charles saw each other, off and on, as friends, and as clandestine lovers.
Why, we might ask, would Camilla cheat on Andrew PB when she loved him and had "campaigned," according to one source, to marry him for seven years? Well, Andrew cheated on her, constantly, with any and all women who were--well--in the UK, or in London, sounds like, beginning soon after their wedding day... This hurt and ticked off Camilla.
I can buy into Diana Chronicles author Tina Brown's theory that Camilla in a sense took revenge on her husband Andrew by cheating on him right back, and not just with any man she could find, but with the Heir To The Throne, thank you very much.
Sort of like -- a way to emotionally "clobber" her husband's feelings and ego.
Camilla and Charles are doing -- that, plus lots and lots of chummy, supportive, hilarious, us-against-the-world telephone conversations, from 1973 to 1981.
During those years the Andrew-Camilla marriage produced two children, boy and a girl.
Meanwhile back at the Buck (Buckingham Palace) -- Charles is getting pressured to "get on with it" -- to do his duty and get married.
The world watched the Charles-Diana wedding in 1981.
The two people least happy with the situation were Charles and Diana.
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For Prince Charles, Camilla started as a friend - companion - love interest.
During the years of his unhappy marriage to Diana, Camilla became his "emotional getaway car." He could go and see her and forget all about -- duty, scheduled appearances, stories about him and his marriage in the newspapers, unsolicited advice from his parents and members of the royal court, Diana, and her popularity with the people -- (on that one, Charles: "Grrrrrhhhh!")
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