Camilla’s son slams Harry for saying his mother schemed for the crown

It will be awkward, to say the least, if Prince Harry comes face to face with Queen Camilla, or her loyal son Tom Parker Bowles, at King Charles III’s May 6 coronation after Harry portrayed his stepmother as one of the chief villains in his narrative about escaping royal life.

Parker Bowles has taken particular issue with Harry’s claim that Camilla orchestrated “a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the crown.” In a podcast interview this week, Parker Bowles, a food writer and food critic, said there was no “endgame” and that his mother married the then-Prince of Wales in 2005 out of love.

“She married the person she loved and this is what happened,” Parker Bowles told The News Agents podcast, hosted by Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel.

“I don’t care what anyone says, this wasn’t some kind of endgame.”@tomparkerbowles speaking exclusively to The News Agents about his mother, Camilla, becoming Queen.

Coming to @GlobalPlayer@maitlis | @jonsopel pic.twitter.com/9FVPXQhoxr

— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) April 20, 2023

Parker Bowles’ defense of Camilla comes after his stepbrother said a number of disparaging things about her in his memoir “Spare” and in interviews to promote the book. The California-based Duke of Sussex alleged that Camilla “sacrificed” him to improve her public image, which was damaged by revelations in the 1990s that she and Charles started an affair while he was still married to the late Princess Diana.

Harry alleged that she leaked private information to the U.K. tabloids about him and his brother, Prince William. He also revealed that he and William, with whom he was once close, begged their father not to marry Camilla.

In “Spare,” Harry wrote that “The Other Woman” — as Harry called Camilla — “began to play the long game,” after Charles said he wanted to marry her.

“Stories began to appear everywhere, in all the papers, about her private conversations with Willy, stories that contained pinpoint accurate details, none of which could have come from Willy,” Harry said. “They could only have been leaked by the one other person present. And the leaking had obviously been abetted by the new spin doctor Camilla had talked Pa into hiring.”

In interviews to promote his book, Harry also branded his stepmother “the villain,” suggested she was “dangerous” and alleged that bodies had been “left in the street” as she sought to rehabilitate her image, The Telegraph reported.

Camilla has said nothing publicly in response to Harry’s claims, abiding by the royal family’s policy to not publicly comment on criticism and negative news stories. But in the run-up to the coronation, it appears she has deputized people close to her to speak on her behalf. In addition to her son defending her in the podcast, a longtime good friend told the Sunday Times last week that Camilla had been “hurt” by things Harry had said.

Fiona Petty-Fitzmaurice, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, said to the Times: “Of course it bothers her, of course it hurts. But she doesn’t let it get to her.”

“Her philosophy is always, ‘Don’t make a thing of it and it will settle down — least said, soonest mended,’” said Petty-Fitzmaurice.

An unnamed royal aide told the Times that the queen had basically brushed off Harry’s comments.

“It was not stamping of feet or gnashing of teeth, it was much more of an eye-roll response,” the aide said.