Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Prince William and Prince Harry.
Diana's royal roots
In addition, this royal connection means that Diana and her husband Prince Charles were very distant cousins, via several lines. In particular, they each descend from a daughter of Henry VII: Margaret, who married James IV of Scotland, and Mary, who married Charles Brandon.
Camilla Is Related to Both Diana and King Charles
Strangely, they are also both related to the late Princess Diana through shared ancestry dating back to King Charles II. Also note that Camilla's great-grandmother was a mistress to King Edward VII, the great-great-grandfather of King Charles.
Queen Elizabeth became mother-in-law to Princess Diana when the latter married Charles. The two appeared to share a polite and formal relationship through the years, according to Diana's biographer Andrew Morton.
Diana is descended from not one, but two illegitimate children of King Charles II of England: Henry Fitzroy and Charles Lennox, via two of her great-grandmothers, Adelaide Seymour and Rosalind Bingham. This means that Diana's royal family tree stretches back through the ages of both English and Scottish history.
But did you know that Camilla actually has royal blood herself? Her royal ancestry is distant, but there's a definite linkage that's worth mentioning. The Earl of Albermarle, Camilla's 2x great-grandfather. The link comes from Camilla's 2x maternal great-grandfather Lieutenant Colonel William Coutts Keppel, born 1832.
In 2005, Camilla married Charles in the Windsor Guildhall, which was followed by a televised Anglican blessing at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. From the marriage until her husband's accession in 2022, she was known as Duchess of Cornwall. She was crowned alongside Charles at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.
Princess Kate made her way through the ranks of the royal family, quickly transforming from a commoner into the future queen consort of England. The Duchess of Cambridge met her future husband, Prince William, in college, and the couple tied the knot in 2011 after nearly a decade together.
According to several royal biographers and also The Crown, Charles wanted to marry Camilla but was steered away from her by the royal family, who didn't think she'd be a suitable wife largely thanks to the fact that she had a few ex-boyfriends and therefore was probably not a virgin.
The queen stood with her family, and as Diana's funeral cortege passed by, she bowed her head. It was not a quick bow, nor a shallow one. The woman accustomed to being bowed by the world now lowered her head and humbly honored the princess.
Camilla announced last Sunday she would not be attending the ceremony after representatives of Clarence House, Prince Charles' London household, had initially assured the public and the press she would accompany her husband.
Change of the wedding location and date
On 22 February, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen would not attend the wedding ceremony, but would attend the church blessing and host the reception afterwards. The reason stated by the palace was the couple wanted to keep the occasion low key.
Although Diana was not the first Princess of Wales, the title became strongly associated with her. And as Marlene Koenig, royal expert and author of the blog Royal Musings, further explains, the decision was also made to avoid stirring up ill feelings toward Camilla.
Having not visited their source links, I leave it to my readers to review and decide. To recap other Middleton family tree news: it's already established that William and Kate are 12th cousins once removed through their common ancestor, the 16th century soldier Sir Thomas Leighton.
In November 2010 it was announced that William would marry his longtime girlfriend, Catherine (Kate) Middleton, whom he had met at St. Andrews. The royal wedding took place on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey in London. The couple's first son, Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, was born on July 22, 2013.
Charles and Diana: 7th cousins, 1x removed
Prince Charles and his first wife, born Lady Diana Spencer who eventually was styled as Diana Princess of Wales, were seventh cousins once removed via William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire.
“The queen didn't want Camilla around in the early days because their relationship was so damaging to the monarchy, but on a personal level, she has always liked Camilla,” Junor says. “They have a lot in common, particularly their love of dogs and horses.
As NBC royal commentator Daisy McAndrew puts it, a “queen consort is a woman who married a man who is king,” and a “queen is a woman who is born to be queen and is head of state — not the wife of a monarch.”
Despite marrying Diana Spencer, Charles never got over his former girlfriend—and against all odds, they got their happy ending 35 years after they first met. Here's the true story of how their twisty, turn-y love story played out (in case The Crown, or the coronation piqued your interest).
As a British subject who was not a peer of the royal family, Lady Diana Spencer was technically a commoner when she married Prince Charles. However, Diana was an aristocrat born into a noble family that had been a part of English history for centuries.
Kate Middleton's net worth is $10 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Before she married William, Kate worked for Jigsaw, a fashion retailer where she procured jewelry, from 2006 to 2007. In 2011, she joined her family's party supply business Party Pieces, which is worth $50 million, according to Cheat Sheet.
She also has tattoos on each of her wrists and a tiger on her left-hand shoulder blade. While she does not appear to have any permanent markings, Princess Kate has experimented with temporary tattoo designs before.
Ex-wife of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer At the age of five Princess Diana would wait on the doorstep in vain for her mum to come home but she never returned, her brother has revealed. There is no evidence of any connection between Camilla Parker Bowles and Princess Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kydd.
Camilla Parker Bowles married King Charles in 2005, becoming stepmother to William and Harry.
Camilla has a younger sister, Annabel Elliot, and had a younger brother, Mark Shand. One of her maternal great-grandmothers, Alice Keppel, was a mistress of King Edward VII from 1898 to 1910. On 1 November 1947, Shand was baptised at St. Peter's Church, Firle, East Sussex.