Queen Camilla remains ‘joined at the hip’ with her ex-husband and ‘co-conspirator’ Andrew Parker Bowles, despite infidelity on both sides during their 22-year marriage (and she’s also on good terms with his new flame Anne Robinson! )

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that hearing that your ex-partner has a new flame can be awkward – but now that the romance between Andrew Parker Bowles and Anne Robinson is being revealed, chances are Andrew’s former wife will be happy for will be him.

Queen Camilla, who was married to the former army brigadier general for 22 years from 1973 to 1995, maintains a strong and close friendship with Andrew – and he even had a special invitation on the guest list for the coronation in May.

Their firm alliance comes despite a turbulent two-decade marriage that saw them welcome two children, food writer Tom, 48, and artist Laura Lopes, 45, but both committed infidelity.

Camilla was Charles’s famous mistress during her marriage to Andrew, with the latter described by friends as ‘very naughty towards women’.

But it seems all differences have been put aside as the pair are ‘joined at the hip’, as an insider previously put it – claiming they are in constant contact and make a great team.

Author Tina Brown has claimed that it was Andrew, not Charles, who was the love of Camilla’s life. Whatever the truth, the man Brown describes as “a walking pink gin” would remain one of her most important confidantes.

“They are joined at the hip,” said a friend. ‘He arranges so much for her. They have lunch together all the time. He’s sitting right there. He was always, and still is, Camilla’s co-conspirator.’

The sun reported last night that the former Weakest Link and Countdown presenter has been in a relationship with the Queen’s ex-husband for about a year.

An insider told the newspaper: ‘They have sensibly avoided having their pictures taken together as they both wanted to keep this quiet for as long as possible.

‘Annie proudly tells everyone she’s the daughter of a market trader chicken seller and she’s as far from a toff as you can get – honestly it beats any storyline The Crown can think of.

“Annie and Andrew get along great, she makes him laugh, a lot, and he’s one of the few people who can get away with making fun of her. She likes to joke that she is ‘new money.’

Andrew is known as ‘The Brigadier’, referring to his former career as an army officer who served with the Blues and Royals and received a Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in Zimbabwe. Andrew has been moving in royal circles for decades.

As a 13-year-old, he served as a page to Lord Simonds, then Lord High Chancellor, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

“My mother was a close friend of the Duke of Norfolk,” he recalled. ‘The Lord Chancellor had no children, so Bernard Norfolk introduced me to Lord Simonds. I must say he was the nicest man in the world and gave me a very nice set of cufflinks.’

Describing a sword fight during the dress rehearsal, he said, “All the pages had little swords. When a bunch of bored little boys all have a sword, you know what’s going to happen.”

Before marrying Camilla, he had a brief affair with Princess Anne, but his Catholicism is said to have dampened marriage prospects. However, they remain good friends and she later named him godfather to her daughter Zara.

He also played polo on the same team as Charles when both men were young and raced in the 1969 Grand National, where he finished 11th.

He first met Camilla in the late 1960s and they dated for several years before marrying in 1973.

According to Andrew’s cousin John Bowes Lyon, the couple was pressured into the union when both their fathers published an engagement announcement for them in The Times.

“Publicly forced by his hand, Andrew proposed to his girlfriend of almost seven years,” wrote author Sarah Bedell Smith.

‘Camilla was very much in love with it [Andrew]Bowes Lyon told Smith. “Her parents really wanted Andrew to marry her.”

The Queen Mother, Princess Anne and Princess Margaret all attended their wedding, and the reception took place at St James’s Palace.

As commander of the Household Cavalry, Andrew accompanied newlyweds Charles and Diana on horseback after their wedding in 1981.

Tina Brown claimed that Camilla only resumed her affair with Charles because she was angry at her husband’s infidelity.

Once seen as a dashing figure and something of a ladies’ man, Parker Bowles is said to have provided at least some of the inspiration for Rupert Campbell-Black, a character from Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster Riders.

Andrew and Camilla divorced in 1995, saying in a statement that “during our marriage we have always tended to follow quite different interests, but in recent years we have led completely separate lives.”

The following year he married his long-term mistress Rosemary Pitman. They were together until Rosemary died of cancer in 2010 at the age of 69.

At the time of her death, it was reported that Camilla was ‘deeply saddened’ by the news.

Andrew was a guest at Charles and Camilla’s wedding in April 2005 and attended their blessing service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

The Marchioness of Lansdowne, one of Camilla’s queen companions, said: ‘Everyone loves Andrew. He is a real charmer, but he always behaves terribly.

“Andrew will call her up and tell her when something is wrong, and she will call him up and tell her when he’s misbehaving.

“Despite adversity, they have maintained very good family ethics. It helps their children and grandchildren.’