How King Charles and Queen Camilla's Wedding Day Was Plagued by Obstacles

King Charles and Queen Camilla celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary on April 9, their first since acceding to the throne in September 2022.

The couple's romance has been one of the most widely written about of the past century, with the pair first connecting in the 1970s before separating to marry different partners. By the 1980s, Charles and Camilla had begun an extramarital affair. This became subject to increased tabloid reporting after Charles' separation from Princess Diana in 1992.

In 1995, Diana famously described Camilla as the third person in her marriage during a TV interview broadcast internationally. The prince and princess divorced a year later.

After Diana's untimely death at the age of just 36 from injuries sustained in a high-speed Paris car crash in 1997, Charles and Camilla's popularity plummeted. However, the couple were determined to change the tide and eventually marry.

After a period of hard-won PR battles, Camilla's public image appeared repaired enough that the decision to go public with her relationship with Charles was taken. The pair made their first joint appearance together as a couple in January 1999 at the Ritz London Hotel.

Five years later, the couple finally announced their engagement, on February 10, 2005. Queen Elizabeth II—who was famously reluctant to have anything to do with Camilla after Diana's death—had been won around into giving her consent.

The wedding was set to take place on April 8, 2005, though the couple's obstacles to the altar were not yet behind them.

Venue Drama

The announcement from Clarence House on February 10, 2005 that Charles and Camilla were to marry, also informed the public that the wedding would be a civil marriage. It would take place at the royal family's residence at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England.

A civil marriage is legal and conducted outside of a place of worship. This option is believed to have been chosen to avoid added controversy surrounding Charles. As future head of the Church of England, it was more prudent for him not to marry inside a place of worship. Camilla was a divorced woman, and her ex-husband was still alive.

The formal marriage ceremony at the castle would be followed by a religious service of blessing at St. George's Chapel, also in Windsor.

Plans appeared to be in motion after the announcement. However, three days later, the palace made a U-turn and issued an additional statement. It read that the venue of the formal ceremony had been moved from Windsor Castle to the Guildhall in the neighboring town center.

The decision to move the site of the wedding was made because, to marry at the castle, the venue would have to have been granted a legal license to hold wedding ceremonies. If this was done, it would have entitled any member of the public to apply to be married at the castle. This was felt to be the potential cause of too much disruption.

After this, the wedding itself was held at the Guildhall, and the blessing ceremony went ahead as previously planned at St. George's Chapel.

Queen's Attendance

Queen Elizabeth's reaction to the second marriage of her eldest son was the focus of widespread reporting at the time of the engagement announcement and wedding day itself.

The monarch released a statement after granting her consent to the union. It read: "The Duke of Edinburgh and I are very happy that the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles are to marry."

The wedding itself, however, raised a challenge in Elizabeth's position as head of the Church of England. In this capacity, she decided not to attend the civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, and instead go to only the blessing. Elizabeth hosted a reception at the castle.

The civil ceremony absence was interpreted by some as a snub. However, the queen's Christian faith and her duty to the church were mainstays of her 70-year reign.

Death of a Pope

With the venues and royal guest lists finally confirmed, it seemed that all was well in the final days before the April 8 wedding day, until the arrival of breaking news from Rome on April 2.

Pope John Paul II had died, and it was announced from the Vatican that his funeral was to be held on April 8. As a head of state and prominent world leader, the hugely popular pope's funeral was to be televised worldwide. It ran the risk of overshadowing Charles and Camilla's big day.

Queen Elizabeth II asked her son to go to the funeral to represent her. Owing to this unexpected obstacle, the plans for the wedding were pushed back 24 hours. The nuptials would take place on April 9 instead.

Camilla's Cold Feet

After all the unexpected issues that arose in the week of the royal wedding, a final blow came when Camilla reportedly developed a case of sinusitis, as well as cold feet.

In her 2022 royal biography The Palace Papers, the former editor of Vanity Fair, Tina Brown, wrote that: "The otherwise stalwart Camilla went into meltdown.

"She developed a chronic case of sinusitis and spent the week with girlfriends ministering to her shredded nerves. On the day of the wedding, she had to be coaxed out of bed."

Of her state of mind on the day, Camilla herself shared some insight during a personal tribute she paid to Queen Elizabeth II shortly after her death in September 2022.

Describing the monarch's sense of humor, Camilla said: "I remember coming from here, Clarence House, to go to Windsor the day I got married, when I probably wasn't firing on all cylinders—quite nervous!

"For some unknown reason, I put on a pair of shoes, and one had an inch heel and one had a two-inch heel. So, I mean, talk about hop-along!" she added.

"There was nothing I could do," Camilla said. "I was halfway down in the car before I realized and [the queen] could see it, and she laughed about it and just said, 'I'm terribly sorry,' and she did have a good sense of humor."

Once Camilla and Charles arrived at the Guildhall, the rest of their wedding day appeared to pass smoothly. The couple received a warm response from the crowds who had gathered in Windsor town for the occasion.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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