Topic: Camilla Duchess

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (née Shand, formerly Parker Bowles, born 17 July 1947) is the second wife of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and is the current holder of the title Duchess of Cornwall and of Rothesay. A spokesman for the Department of Constitutional Affairs told the Sunday Times " automatically takes the title Princess of Wales and all the other titles that go with her marriage to the Prince of Wales" although she uses one of her other titles, Duchess of Cornwall, in all parts of the United Kingdom except Scotland, where she is titled as Duchess of Rothesay. This preference of title reflects a desire to avoid confusion with the title closely identified in part of the 1980s and 1990s with the Prince of Wales's first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Born at King's College Hospital, London, on 17 July 1947, Camilla was raised opposite the Plumpton Racecourse, Plumpton, East Sussex by her parents, Major Bruce Shand (a British Army officer turned wine merchant, as well as prisoner of war in World War II and recipient of the Military Cross and Bar) and The Honourable Rosalind Cubitt (1921–1994, eldest child of Roland Calvert Cubitt, Ashcombe): her siblings are her brother, Mark, and sister, Annabel. Camilla attended Dumbrells School in Sussex, as well as Queen's Gate School in Kensington. She subsequently attended the Mon Fertile finishing school in Switzerland and studied at the Institut Britannique in Paris. Following her education, she worked for a year at the offices of designers Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. She also became an avid equestrienne and participated in fox hunting.

On 4 July 1973, Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, London, their bridesmaids including Parker Bowles's goddaughter Lady Emma Herbert. The couple had two children: Tom, born in the year after the marriage, who is a godson of Prince Charles, and Laura, born in 1978; both Parker Bowles children were raised in their father's Roman Catholic faith. Andrew Parker Bowles initiated divorce proceedings against Camilla following the admission by the Prince of Wales that he had conducted a long-term extra-marital affair with Mrs. Parker Bowles; the couple's divorce was finalised on 3 March 1995.