The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the Crown

I’m neutral about Diana and Camilla. I think there are/were good and bad things about both of them. But according to this book, every single thing Camilla has ever done is perfect. Every man is wildly attracted to her, all her “servants/help” just love her, and she knows how to throw a perfect dinner party. There’s no balance here, i.e., good AND bad. The only thing slightly negative is that it’s hinted a few times that’s she’s lazy, but it’s in the sense that she never went to college and basically has sat around doing nothing her whole life except dealing with horses. If she and Charles love each other, I’m all for them being happy, but a balanced view of her this is not. No one is this perfect.

I’m so angry I purchased this book, honestly I’m quite livid. It’s little more than blatant stealing from other sources and retelling the resulting anecdotes from previous publications, all as the author’s own research. There’s old stories we all know from Diana herself and a few paragraphs that seem to be from direct conversations but are hardly worth the pricetag as they were actually second hand information! And shame on this author for retelling as her own research stories directly grabbed from Camilla’s brother’s funeral speeches. The last chapters are merely summaries of Camilla’s charities. Complete crap.

A very nasty trashing of the life of Diana. I am a woman of almost 70 years and I assure you…if I caught my man wearing jewelry from his mistress all hell would break loose. There would be a crying, throwing, raging fit. No mental deficiency required. Or him buying his ex a gift of jewelry? I would throw his unfaithful butt out. Or his ex lover at our wedding? The author tries to pass this off as no big deal. Only a mentally sick person would be emotionally disturbed. I dont buy for a minute that the affair ever ended. The much older Charles conned the young Diana. His only intention to carry out his obligations to produce an heir. Perhaps Charles and Camilla stopped having sexual relations for a spell, but the affair never ended. This state of affairs would be the emotional undoing of any young woman. That said, we are all human. Its just the sanitizing of the sordid goings on and the blaming of Dianas mental issues as equally culpable is what bothers me about this book.

Didn’t think that reading this book would turn me off on the Royal family in such a huge way. Had no real opinion of Camilla before this book but now sure don’t think she was the nice person the spin has given us. Charles and his temper tantrums mentioned throughout this book is just too ridiculous to even try to picture. They’re all spoiled to the point they don’t even want to dress themselves. UGH

When I ordered this book I did so in hopes of learning something new about Camilla. So, to anyone on the fence about ordering this book , save your money.

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