As a young monarch and a significant senior royalty, Prince Charles has always lived under the limelight, subject to public scrutiny as the firstborn son and heir to the throne. Reporters closely followed his every step, with many calling him a more modern sovereign compared to his predecessors. He truly has many merits as a leader and as King. Still, as a public figure, he was almost always subject to invasion of privacy, as we see in the fifth season of The Crown when a phone call that was meant to be shared between the callers was intercepted, sold, and later on published for the world to see. Here is the story of the so-called Tampongate.
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The Story Behind Charles and Camilla
Charles and Camille went through a lot before finally announcing their relationship publicly.
How Charles and Camilla Met
Charles and Camilla met in the early 1970s. They allegedly started dating soon after meeting, but things cooled off when Charles returned to Naval duty in 1973. Camilla then rekindles a relationship with and soon marries Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973. There have been claims that Andrew and Camilla’s first break up happened with Andrew pursued Anne and that Camilla and Charles wouldn’t have started dating if Andrew didn’t start things with Anne.
Charles and Diana
Later, in 1977, Charles met Diana as he was dating her older sister at that time, Sarah. On February 24, 1981, Charles and Diana formally announced their engagement. They were married only a few months later, on July 29. Diana was just 20.
Charles and Camilla (Again)
A few years later, in 1986, reports say Charles rekindled his relationship with Camilla. They continued their relationship until they separated from and divorced their respective partners.
The Phone Call Between Charles and Camilla
As portrayed in The Crown Season 5, the phone call included private details about the couple’s relationship. The phone call happened in real life, though the details may have been more R-rated. In 1993, a recording of an intimate phone conversation between Charles and Camilla (which happened in 1989) was leaked to the public. One detail that caught the public’s attention was Charles’s apparent desire to be a tampon, which led to the call being dubbed Tampongate.
