Camilla was said to be very “anxious” for the meeting, which had taken her by surprise, the royal expert claimed. The Duchess has recently been the victim of intense trolling due to backlash from Netflix drama The Crown, which depicted her affair with Prince Charles in the Eighties. The Crown portrays the devastating breakdown of Charles’ marriage to Diana and the effect that had on her mental health.
As a result, some of Diana’s fans took to social media and took it out on the real-life Camilla.
The Clarence House Twitter account had its comments turned off to combat the slew of abuse.
This is not the first time Camilla has had to deal with backlash to her infamous affair with the heir to the throne ‒ the press and public gave her a tough time after it first came to light in 1992.
She also faced a cold reception from the Royal Family, with the Queen refusing to acknowledge her until the year 2000.
READ MORE: Camilla’s ‘anxious’ first meeting with Prince William unveiled
Camilla met Prince William for the first time in 1998 (Image: GETTY)
Emerald Fennell as Camilla in The Crown (Image: Netflix)
On top of this, Camilla had to deal with the fall-out in her own family; she and Andrew Parker Bowles got divorced and her children were reportedly “relentlessly teased” by their peers about the affair.
It was on this backdrop that Camilla first met her future step-son Prince William in 1998.
It was just a year since the Princess of Wales’ tragic death in Paris and Charles was, very gradually, trying to introduce her to those in his life.
Penny Junor wrote in her 2017 biography ‘The Duchess: The Untold Story’: “One day William rang from school to say he was coming home to London for the weekend. It caught everyone on the hop.
Prince Charles and Camilla enjoying a cocktail together (Image: GETTY)
“At the time they were living in York House, next to St James’s Palace, and since neither of the boys were expected, Camilla was there.”
Camilla “immediately said she would leave”, the biography claims, but Charles asked her to stay and informed William she would be at the house.
William was expected at seven o’clock but he is said to have turned up at half past three and went straight to his apartment at the top of the house.
Camilla was with their personal assistant Amanda and feeling “decidedly anxious”, the biography adds.
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Prince Charles and Camilla’s relationship timeline (Image: EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS)
However, Ms Junor described how Charles “took her upstairs and introduced her to his son and left them alone to talk.”
In the biography, Ms Junor added: “About half an hour later, Camilla came out saying, ‘I need a gin and tonic!’”
Despite her natural anxieties, the meeting was apparently friendly and Camilla started spending more time at York House when William was there.
However, at the time, she never stayed at Highgrove when either of the boys were there.
Ms Junor explained: “There were no memories for them of their mother at York House, but Highgrove was a different matter. It had been Diana’s house.”
Gradually, Camilla was introduced to the rest of the family and increasingly appeared with Charles in public.
Eventually, the couple got married in 2005 at Windsor Guildhall.
William now enjoys a warm relationship with his step-mother and both the Duke of Cambridge and his brother Prince Harry have spoken of their admiration for her.
Camilla and William now have a warm relationship (Image: GETTY)
William also gets on well with his step-siblings Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles.
However, it was not always an easy ride in this department as, when they were young, he and Laura used to have “terrible fights”, the biography claims.
While William reportedly blamed Camilla for the hurt his mother faced, Laura is said to have blamed Charles for the break-up of her own parents’ marriage.
