Princess Eugenie read to schoolchildren as she promoted Queen Camilla’s late brother’s elephant conservation charity.

The King’s niece, 33, chatted with children from Garden House School at Elephant Family’s Little Egg Hunt in Sloane Square, London, on Thursday.

The conservation charity Elephant Family was founded in 2003 by Her Majesty’s late brother Mark Shand.

The royal called Mark “a dear friend” and said she became involved with the event because the charity is close to her family’s heart.

With a subtle nod to the Queen, Eugenie said: ‘It was so important to be here because I have been working with the Elephant Family for so many years and they are a charity that is so close to my heart, close to the heart of my family. .

‘Mark Shand, who founded the charity, was a dear friend and what they do to save elephants and raise awareness of what is going on is so important for the world to know.

‘The legacy they’ve created and the excitement around hunting for eggs or bamboo elephants in Hyde Park, it brings elephants to London that I’ve never seen before, bridging the gap with what’s happening in the wild, which you might don’t see every day, can actually come to a city so we can learn what’s happening.’

The Easter egg hunt and art installation is a celebration of art, philanthropy and Easter, presented by the royal charity and Clarence Court eggs.

From March 20 to April 14, egg sculptures will be spread throughout the Chelsea neighborhood.

People will see the large-scale egg sculptures that have been creatively conceived and each designed by some of the world’s most notable artists in design and architecture, including Anya Hindmarch, Philip Colbert, Charlotte Colbert, Dan Baldwin, James McQueen, Bellerby Globe, Natasha Kumar, Lily Lewis, Allegra Hicks, Rebecca Campbell, Rob Ryan and Rob and Nick Carter.

The charity hopes to raise awareness of crucial conservation issues and is on a mission to raise money for projects on the ground.

The organization was founded in 2003 by Mark, who died in 2014 after slipping and hitting his head while leaving a £1 million fundraiser in New York for his elephant charity.

In 2020, Elephant Family joined forces with the British Asian Trust in a new philanthropic partnership dedicated to supporting Asia’s wildlife.

The charity supports a wide range of projects that find ways for people and animals to live closer together – from securing a network of wildlife corridors that act as bridges between islands of forests, to relocating busy highways that pass through old-growth forests to cut.

It comes after the mother-of-two looked chic and sophisticated in a white wrap coat, which she wore with an oatmeal midi dress at the Cheltenham festival last week.

The 33-year-old was pictured in a sleek white fedora and carrying a structured handbag with gold hardware that perfectly matched the tone of her dress.

The royal completed her look with a pair of tan suede boots and minimal gold hoops.

When she arrived at the racecourse, Eugenie posed for photos with her husband Jack Brooksbank, who was dressed in a light gray suit and green tie.

The Queen’s close-knit friendship group has stepped up to support their friend in recent days, following the news this week that King Charles has cancer. 

On Thursday, Camilla made her first public outing since the monarch’s diagnosis was made public, choosing two of her closest companions to accompany her on a visit to Salisbury Cathedral.

The royal, 76, took a five-hour drive from Sandringham to Wiltshire for the charity musical evening, to raise funds after the local helipad flooded. 

By her side were two of the Queen’s most loyal female friends, Sarah Troughton, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire and the Marchioness of Lansdowne, Fiona Petty-Fitzmaurice.

At the event, Camilla said King Charles, 75, who underwent his first bout of treatment earlier this week, was ‘very touched’ by all the messages of support he has been receiving from around the world.  

As the Queen’s later life has been ever more in the public eye, her crucial inner circle – including family, celebrities and aristocratic companions – has provided untold support through the decades, sometimes in the face of hostile criticism. 

Here, MAILONLINE looks at the key friendships steeling the Queen through one of the toughest times of her life so far…

CAMILLA’S SISTER: Annabel Elliot

Queen Camilla’s younger sister is Annabel Elliot. a 75-year-old interior designer and antiques dealer.

At the Coronation last year, Annabel served as one of her Ladies in Attendance alongside Lady Lansdowne and has been described as her sister’s quieter counterpart. 

The pair have previously recalled spending their childhood rolling down hills, catching butterflies and dressing correctly for their strict grandmother while staying at their grandparents’ Hampshire home.

As young women, Camilla loved debutante circuit while Annabel was rather more serious and preferred a quieter life — ‘not the kind of girl to throw her knickers on the table’, as it has been put. 

Annabel has said that Camilla, who was a debutante a year ahead of her, ‘was a great success, but I certainly wasn’t. I probably wasn’t quite as confident as her.’

At the same time, Annabel was seen as the more intelligent sister with ‘taste’, who eschewed the London party scene. Instead, she went to Florence to study art.

One friend asserted that Annabel, ‘with her style and good taste, is the one who should have been a duchess’. 

‘She’d have been perfect,’ said the friend, ‘but would never want to change places. As for Camilla, she pulls it off, in her own way.’

In 1972, Annabel married her first real boyfriend at 23 – Simon Elliot, and in 1973 Camilla, aged 25, married her first husband – dashing Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles.

Annabel and her husband, who died in March aged 82, inhabited a country house in the Dorset village of Stourpaine where Charles and Camilla would meet for discreet weekends as secret lovers.

She continued to support her sister throughout the difficulties of the relationship, driving Camilla away and out of public view when John Major announced in the Commons the separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1992.

Annabel’s 40th birthday party was where Diana confronted Camilla over her relationship with Charles and it was her 50th birthday celebrations at the Ritz where Camilla came out as Charles’ partner, using the occasion to pose for their first public pictures together on the hotel steps.

COMPANIONS: Sarah Troughton, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire

In November 2022, Camilla announced her new ‘Queen’s Companions’ as the position of lady-in-waiting was scrapped. Indicating a break from tradition, the Queen Consort decided to enlist six confidantes as her companions, each receiving a nominal fee to cover their expenses in much the same way as ladies-in-waiting.

One companion, Sarah Troughton, has been Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire since 2012 and is the first woman ever to have held the position since it was created in the 16th century. Sarah is the second cousin of the King as her grandfather was the brother of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

She was previously lady-in-waiting for Katharine, Duchess of Kent and her grandson, Nicholas Barclay, was one of the King’s Pages of Honour for his Coronation, alongside others including the King’s grandson, Prince George. 

The mother-of-three is married to Peter Troughton, who is a trustee of the Royal Collection and also a pro-chancellor at Bath University.

Sarah herself is a trustee of the Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon, where she lives.

Since assuming the role of Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Sarah’s duties have included overseeing the arrangements for royal visits to Wiltshire by members of the Royal Family.

She also represents the monarch and presents awards and medals on his behalf, and liaises with the Wiltshire units of the Armed Forces.

Speaking about Camilla on Good Morning Britain in 2022, Sarah said: ‘I don’t think there’s much that will surprise you, all I can tell you is that she’s the nicest, kindest, most amusing friend one could possibly have, to all generations, that includes our children.’ 

Marchioness of Lansdowne, Fiona Petty-Fitzmaurice

Lady Lansdowne is a professional interior designer and has had her own studio, Fiona Shelburne, for more than three decades.

As well as serving as one of the Queen’s Companions, she was also one of Camilla’s Ladies in Attendance at the Coronation. 

She currently lives at Bowood House in Wiltshire with her husband Charlie, the 9th Marquis.

In 2022, she opened up her house to The English Home in an interview where she revealed she and Charlie lived with their three dogs, Tinker, Tulip and Maud.

Lady Lansdowne also explained she and her husband were custodians for the house, which is open to visits from the public, and admitted it was a ‘big responsibility’ to take care of the home.

Despite having lots of visitors from the public, she said she and her husband had their own ‘sanctuary’ in their private quarters.

She revealed she and her husband have a picnic in their woodland garden every Sunday without fail, even if it’s raining outside.

‘We have our supper here on a table by the fire. We don’t have a huge, “state-of-the-art” kitchen but I love my Aga and love to cook,’ she said.

Lady Sarah Keswick

Lady Sarah Keswick is another close friend of the Queen Consort and King Charles, along with her husband, Sir John Chippendale ‘Chips’ Lindley Keswick.

From 2013 until his retirement in 2020, Chips was chairman of Arsenal Football Club.

Lady Sarah appears to be a sports fan herself and was spotted at Wimbledon with the Queen Consort in June 2011.

The pair sat in the royal box to get ready for a day of action on Centre Court, while the late TV legend Bruce Forsyth appeared to join them.

The mother-of-three shares three sons, David, Tobias and Adam, with Chips.

Lady Sarah is the daughter of former Conservative MP and 16th Earl of Dalhousie Simon Ramsay.

During his five years in Parliament from 1945 until 1950, when he assumed the title of Earl of Dalhousie from his late brother, Simon did a stint as Conservative whip.

Carlyn Chisholm

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen, 70, is a crossbench life peer in the House of Lords.

However, until she was announced as one of the Queen Consort’s Companions in 2022, she sat in the House as a Conservative peer.

Baroness Chisholm resigned the Conservative whip in order to hold the position in the Queen Consort’s most relied upon circle.

She was first appointed to the House of Lords in 2014 when David Cameron was prime minister. Since then she has seen four more prime ministers enter Downing Street.

Before entering politics, the mother-of-three, from Sussex, worked as a nurse.

A fan of horse racing, she has previously attended Royal Ascot with the Charles and Camilla and, before the royal couple quit, used to go fox hunting with them too. 

Lady Katherine Brooke

Lady Katherine Brooke has been a close friend of Queen Consort Camilla and King Charles for several years.

As one of the six Queen’s Companions, she’s also the daughter of a former lady-in-waiting. Lady Katherine Brooke’s mother is Lady Susan Hussey, who served as Queen Elizabeth II’s lady-in-waiting for more than 60 years.

Known as one of the late Queen’s ‘Head Girls’ as a lady-in-waiting, she was reportedly nicknamed the ‘Number One Head Girl’ and grew close to King Charles, becoming godmother to his eldest son, Prince William.

Lady Susan was retained by King Charles following his mother’s death but resigned in November 2022 following comments made towards a guest at Queen Consort Camilla’s reception to discuss ending violence against women.

She allegedly asked Ngozi Fulani, a black woman who runs domestic abuse charity Sistah Space in Hackney: ‘What part of Africa are you from?’ 

However, three months after her resignation, Lady Susan was seen performing official duties for Princess Anne, representing her at the memorial service for Dame Frances Campbell-Preston at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.

Jane von Westenholz

Jane von Westenholz is a long time friend of the Queen Consort and King Charles.

She is married to Baron Piers von Westenholz, the interior designer and former Olympic skier who, with his wife, was involved in the renovation of Dumfries House – a Scottish stately home saved by Charles in 2007.

They are the parents of Violet von Westenholz, who introduced Prince Harry to Meghan Markle when the pair started dating.

Violet is a close childhood friend of Harry’s and the pair often spent time together as children due to their parents’ close friendship.

At the time of introducing the pair, Violet was working in communications for Ralph Lauren in London and met Meghan Markle through her job.

FAMOUS FRIENDS 

During her time as a royal, Camilla has been spotted working with the nation’s most famous celebrities at glamorous events, who have undoubtedly come to know the Queen Consort over the years.

Among those whom she counts as celebrity pals include Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith – as well as actress Joanna Lumley.

Judi Dench 

A-lister Dame Judi Dench has me the Queen Consort on a number of occasions and supports her work.

In 2018, Camilla met with the actress on the Isle of Wight to visit Queen Victoria’s holiday home of Osborne House in East Cowes.

The actress and patron of the Friends of Osborne House showed Camilla the restored Durbar Room, which was one of the locations for the film Victoria and Abdul in which she played Queen Victoria.

The pair could be seen enjoying a catch up over a vanilla ice cream complete with a flake in the heatwave weather.

The Oscar winner has also supported Camilla’s Reading Room, a charity launched during lockdown to provide opportunities for the appreciation of literature.

She attended a reception for the Reading Room in 2021 where she was seen chatting animatedly with Charles and Camilla and also took part in one of the organisation’s Reading Room Roundtables.

Joanna Lumley

Dame Joanna has proven to be a loyal and long-term friend of Camilla and the royal family, attending Camilla’s wedding to Charles in 2005. 

The Absolutely Fabulous star has previously spoken out against Netflix’s series The Crown, revealing she doesn’t watch the programme out of loyalty to the royal family.

After watching the earlier series, she told The Mirror she switched off as the show began to portray events later in the monarch’s reign.

She said: ‘Suddenly, it began to get closer and closer and they had people acting as Prince Charles, as Camilla Parker Bowles, as Princess Anne. I know them all.

‘I know that’s not how they speak or what they said or did. People say, “Oh, well everybody knows that it’s made up.” 

‘People don’t, people think it’s the truth. So I decided not to watch it anymore because I have some loyalty, as one would to anybody they know and like and are lucky enough to be friendly with. It’s rather ghastly.’

Just before Hogmanay 2004, Prince Charles, as he was then, whisked his long-term partner Camilla Parker-Bowles off to Scotland for a romantic break.

Their destination was Birkhall, Charles’s beloved private bolthole on the Balmoral estate. And it was there, on a frosty night in front of a roaring fire, where Charles ‘sank to one knee in front of the woman he loved and popped the question’.

It is little surprise that the King chose to propose at Birkhall, a place he once referred to as ‘a unique haven of cosiness and character’ and which is rumoured to be his favourite home. After all, it is said to be the only one of his residences where he can truly relax. Away from the prying eyes of court and his subjects he can stick on a pair of wellies and go for a ramble, or look out the good whisky and settle down in a favourite chair with the papers.

Perhaps this is why, since that particularly special New Year nearly 20 years ago, the King and Queen have spent almost every Hogmanay since in Scotland, at Birkhall.

This year, Christmas at Sandringham – an immovable feast in the Royal calendar – was a particularly busy affair. The guest list was expanded to include the Queen’s children and grandchildren, meaning some staff had to give up their rooms to accommodate extra guests.

There was also the traditional walk to church on Christmas morning followed by a formal lunch and a Boxing Day shoot involving a number of family members, as well as the legendary exchange of gag gifts (Princess Anne apparently presented her brother Charles with a white leather toilet seat one year).

It’s little wonder then, that once the wrapping paper has been cleared away and the Boxing Day kedgeree finished, the King and Queen are in need of a little respite.

The King’s Birkhall New Year tradition is something he has clearly been unwilling to give up since ascending the throne. His mother’s routine was to stay at Sandringham until the first week of February – in order to mark the death of her father King George VI, who died on February 6, 1952 – yet Charles is clearly keen to plough his own furrow.

Last year he and Camilla headed to Birkhall as usual, although there was, for the first time, the addition of the sovereign’s red boxes, which will again travel north with him. But otherwise, the King’s time at the baronial home – informal, relaxed, down at home – is unchanged.

Birkhall New Years, then, have their own particular flavour. There are often a few house guests – Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot and her husband Simon are regular visitors, as is former Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames, a great friend of the King. The couple’s two Jack Russell terriers, Bluebell and Beth, also come. The crowd is described as ‘very much Charles and Camilla’s set’ – which is perhaps why, in the early years, William and Harry gave it a wide berth.

William and Kate did, however, spend their first Hogmanay as a married couple at Birkhall in 2011, while the two also pitched up in 2009 with Kate’s parents Michael and Carole Middleton in tow, sparking rumours a proposal was in the offing (it would, in fact, come ten months later in Kenya).

While the days are generally relaxed, there has been the occasional raucous Birkhall Hogmanay bash to see in the bells. In 2006, two of Charles’s personal chefs were understood to have been brought to cook a grand dinner, preparing prime Highland cattle steak, gamebirds shot near the river Dee, locally caught salmon and mushrooms grown by Charles himself. Booze included a 50-year-old malt whisky. Camilla, meanwhile, did the flower arranging, ceilidh music was played and guests, apparently, wore tartan.

An insider revealed Charles would ‘pull out all the stops for his party, which will probably go on into the early hours of the morning’. Gosh. No wonder the King once told friends on Deeside: ‘At Balmoral there’s a lot of dancing, and at Birkhall there’s a lot of drinking.’

In fact, there has only ever been one thing off the menu for Hogmanay party celebrations at Birkhall: fireworks, since it was feared the noise could scare Charles’s prize Indian Runner ducks. While the ducks – which Charles introduced to the Balmoral estate in 2005 and are rumoured to have irritated the late Queen because their fleet-footedness meant they were forever setting off security sensors – are believed to be no more, it is likely that fireworks will remain off menu, particularly as Hogmanay at Birkhall these days is believed to be a more sedate, low-key affair.

One thing that is for certain, however, is that the guest list remains highly exclusive.

Few have crossed the threshold of Birkhall – it is not a place where the King entertains dignitaries (that is what Balmoral is for), nor even many neighbours. When they hold an annual ball, staff put up a marquee.

Although hundreds of thousands has been spent on revamping the property since it passed to Charles in 2002 following the death of the Queen Mother, it is believed some relics from its previous owner still remain in residence. It has been claimed that some of the Queen Mother’s Vanity Fair ‘Spy’ cartoons still line the staircase, and that some of her blue raincoats still hang in the hall.

A downstairs loo is named ‘Arthur’s Seat’ after a favourite member of the Queen Mother’s household. It is, in every sense of the word, a family home, an entirely different prospect from the rambling corridors and stiff formality that the Queen stuck to at nearby Balmoral.

Some of the few invited guests at Birkhall are the local red squirrels. ‘We get them chasing each other round and round inside,’ the King said once.

‘If I sit quietly, they will do so around me. Sometimes, when I leave my jackets on a chair with nuts in the pockets, I see them with their tails sticking out, as they hunt for nuts. They are incredibly special creatures.’

In many ways Charles is following in the footsteps of Birkhall’s previous owner, his grandmother, who still entertained close friends at what she called the ‘little big house’ into her nineties, where guests would be treated to outdoor picnics, whatever the weather, followed by furious games of racing demon after dinner – not to mention a regular supply of gin.

Her late niece Margaret Rhodes once recalled: ‘At the end of the meal she would start a series of toasts. As well as “Hooray for” with glasses held high, there was even more of “Down with”, with glasses almost disappearing beneath the table. Combined with the nostalgic sing-songs, [it] always made for an unforgettable evening.’

It is perhaps notable too that one frequent guest in those days was a young Prince of Wales, who, when at school, enjoyed receiving letters from his grandmother bursting with news about the Birkhall gardens and the staff.

The couple’s first Hogmanay at Birkhall, when the King proposed on bended knee, was something of a logistical nightmare. The pair had spent Christmas apart – Charles at Sandringham, Camilla with her children Tom and Laura, and their respective families.

Charles had first to secure the support of his sons William and Harry and of his mother the sovereign before asking for Camilla’s hand, with the Queen apparently agreeing that ‘regularising’, in royal parlance, Camilla’s role was the best course of action for the efficiency of the Royal Family. She even agreed to Charles choosing Camilla’s engagement ring from the Queen Mother’s collection.

It was clearly a happy occasion: not only have they returned almost every year since, Charles and Camilla spent their honeymoon at Birkhall too. But in 2015, the royal couple found themselves at the centre of a national disaster when, the night before Hogmanay, Camilla woke up to the sound of rushing water and the rumble of boulders in what she later described as ‘the most frightening noise I have ever heard in my life’.

Storm Frank had arrived in Royal Deeside to wreak tremendous havoc. When Charles went outside he found his restoration project on the Birkhall gardens – which he had been working on for years – was in ruins.

The land, which includes a traditional kitchen garden where vegetables and cutting flowers are grown, was sectioned off by various hedges. Camilla enjoyed using plants from the garden in flower arrangements in the house.

But on that morning in 2015, most of it was flooded, and a huge part of the garden had been destroyed when the nearby River Muick burst its banks, damaging a bridge leading to the property. A gazebo, a memorial to the Queen Mother, roses, fruit trees and fruit and vegetable patches were also washed away.

Ballater had fared even worse, and when the King went into the village to visit he found that a number of businesses had been flooded, knee deep in water, as were many homes. Abergeldie Castle, near Birkhall, was in danger of collapsing into the River Dee. Many farmers in the region lost equipment due to the surge of storm water and some of their livestock drowned.

In the following days the King intervened to help flood victims, with the Prince’s Countryside Fund appealing to the public to help to create a relief fund.

That year, Hogmanay at Birkhall came and went without fanfare. There were no parties or jolly gatherings, as the Royal couple did what they could to help the flood relief effort.

The couple paid a number of visits to Ballater, including one to see flood victims rehoused in a local barracks, and called in favours from old friends, including a call from the King to Jim Walker, of Walkers shortbread, who agreed to send biscuits and shortbread to the emergency services.

Eight years on much of the area has been regenerated, including the King’s beloved gardens at Birkhall, but local affection for his rolled-up sleeves attitude towards the storm damage remains. Since then, the couple have only missed one Hogmanay at Birkhall, in 2020, when travel restrictions during the Covid lockdown meant they were unable to head north and instead had to stay put down south.

This year at Birkhall, the King’s second in the top job and his first since the Coronation, will no doubt be a chance for reflection on an extraordinary year and plans for what is to come.

And what better environment to do it than in the place where he feels most at home, after a bracing walk around the grounds, and with a whisky in hand?

When Buckingham Palace staff gather to explore the pressing issues facing the monarchy in 2024, I doubt public indifference will be on the list.

The most-watched television event of 2023 was, by a country mile, the King’s Coronation, and the most-watched program during the holiday season was its Christmas broadcast (just as it was the highest-rated TV event this time last year).

Perhaps more remarkable were the viewing figures for the following day, as Boxing Day is always a more open field. But once again it was the King who topped the charts. The BBC1 documentary Charles III: The Coronation Year was by far the most watched show on one of the biggest television days of the year.

The King and Queen were of course the stars of the program, which followed behind the scenes the preparations for the coronation, the events of that day and royal life since then. (I should declare my interest, as I was part of the small Oxford Films team that made the film.)

But as many reviewers and commentators have noted, this film also underscored a truth appreciated by families everywhere, royal or otherwise: the importance of sisters. If any ‘best supporting’ kudos have to be handed out after the documentary, it goes to the Princess Royal and Annabel Elliot, Queen Camilla’s younger sister.

The British public has long valued and admired Princess Anne as a tireless, loyal, tenacious harbinger of common sense within royal circles. We saw it during the Queen’s final years and we saw it during the new reign.

It’s a priceless scene in this week’s documentary when she greets the newly crowned king, just before entering the palace balcony, with: “Hello, old bean!” Her older brother roars with laughter and kisses her hand.

Less known (or not known at all), however, is the role of the other sister within the Court.

If we can say that Queen Camilla has a best friend and ally, it is surely the 18 months younger sibling with whom she has experienced the happiest and saddest periods of her life – from the brickbats and the intrusion after the end of her first life. marriage until her coronation in Westminster Abbey.

Certainly, there is no one else who could say with unquestionable authority about the relationship between the King and Queen, “She is his rock, and I can’t really stress that enough… You know, they are yin and yang. , Real. They are actually opposites of each other, but I think it works excellently.’

What is equally clear is that the queen also has her own ‘stone’.

One of the most moving moments in the entire ninety-minute film is when the king and queen leave for the abbey on the morning of the coronation.

Director Ashley Gething and cinematographer Chris Openshaw capture Annabel Elliot, in her official role as Queen’s Companion, with handkerchief in hand, waving to her big sister.

“I thought back to… watching the Queen’s coronation on a little black and white television,” she later recalls, welling up in memories of both 1953 and 2023. “And there goes this golden carriage with my sister in it. . I can’t explain the feeling because it’s so surreal and this can’t happen. It was quite a moment.’

In retrospect we know that May 6 was a great success. However, there was plenty to worry about at the time, not least the safety, the precise timing, the potential protests and the gloomy weather – all unfolding in front of a global television audience.

“When I went into the abbey, I think I had that nervousness the whole time,” says Annabel, echoing the same protective instincts she’s always had for sweet Camilla. ‘She’s a lot smaller than me. I feel like, ‘Is she okay?’ ‘

It’s a feeling that goes back to a childhood in Sussex, which both women have described as ‘perfect’. They had a very close, loving family. Their father, Major Bruce Shand, was a much-decorated war hero (he twice won the Military Cross) and made a career in the wine business.

Their mother, Rosalind, devoted herself to family life and charity work. After the birth of Camilla in 1947 and Annabel in 1949, brother Mark was born in 1951.

The two girls had all the usual rivalries and scrapes. In a documentary to mark the then Duchess of Cornwall’s 75th birthday, Annabel revealed she still had not forgiven her older sister for burying her beloved cuddly toy, Tiddy Bar, in a bed of roses.

Yet they always supported each other because they went to the same schools, participated in the same pony club events and later went to the same parties. They married within a year of each other and had children at the same time (three in Annabel’s case), regularly holidaying together in a family group.

When Camilla’s first marriage, to Brigadier General Andrew Parker Bowles, ended shortly before that of the then Prince and Princess of Wales, Annabel provided both moral support and refuge. Looking for a break from the incessant media coverage, the future queen and her sister disappeared together to Venice to paint and collect their thoughts.

(Both share an artistic streak, which has guided Annabel through a successful career as a leading interior designer.) When the time finally came for the Prince of Wales to appear in public alongside the “non-negotiable” woman in his life, it was a milestone Annabel’s 50th birthday party at The Ritz in 1999.

In the years before their wedding in Windsor in 2005, when the prince and the then Mrs Parker Bowles spent Christmas apart, she would go to Annabel and her husband Simon’s home in Dorset. The two sisters are said to be ‘rocks’ for each other following the deaths of their mother in 1994, their father in 2006 and, tragically, their younger brother Mark, following an accident in 2014.

So when Queen Camilla came to choose the two companions to support and accompany her during the coronation, it was no surprise when she chose Annabel, along with her lifelong friend, the Marchioness of Lansdowne.

But what viewers of this week’s film may not have known is that Annabel had to endure great personal sadness during the intense run-up to the ceremony. Simon, the highly respected source of wise advice and good humor to keep calm and carry on, died in March after a long illness at the age of 82.

It meant Annabel arranged the funeral of her husband of more than fifty years, while at the same time preparing for the big occasion at the abbey. In the best family traditions of perseverance, she did just that, as sisters – and ‘rocks’ – always do.

“She’s someone who is completely loyal,” says Annabel when asked to sum up her sister, “and she’s not someone who has big highs and lows.” I dare say that if we had asked the same question to Queen Camilla, the answer would have been identical.

Charles III: The Coronation Year is available on BBC iPlayer. Charles III. New king. New Court. Robert Hardman’s The Inside Story will be published by Macmillan next month

Charles and Camilla are ‘yin and yang’ but make an extremely formidable team, say friends and family.

Annabel Elliot, the Queen’s sister, described her as the King’s ‘rock’, while her close friend Lady Lansdowne said the fact the couple had to ‘fight’ to be together only strengthened their unshakable ‘bond’ but has strengthened.

And speaking publicly for the first time about the long relationship between the king and queen, Princess Anne – not known for her emotional exuberance – gave her sister-in-law the royal seal of approval.

‘I’ve known her for a long time. “Her understanding of the role and how much difference it makes to the King has been absolutely excellent,” she said.

‘This role is not something she would be natural for, but she does it very well. She provides that change of speed and tone, which is just as important.’

The women were interviewed tonight for the royal documentary on BBC One about Charles’ first year as monarch, Charles III: The Coronation Year.

Mrs Elliot, who acted as one of two ladies in the presence of her sister on coronation day, added: ‘She is his rock and I really can’t stress that enough.

“She is someone who is completely loyal and not someone who has great highs and lows.”

But she insisted it wasn’t a one-sided relationship, explaining: ‘He brings her everything. I’m not talking about all this [she said, referring to Buckingham Palace]but…he has so much knowledge and interest in so many different things, which she wouldn’t really have been open to if she hadn’t met him.

‘They are actually yin and yang. They are truly opposites. But I think it works brilliantly.’

She added, waving her hand up to indicate their pace of work, “Most of us, as we reach these kinds of ages, think yes, slow times. But theirs will be just like that.”

The documentary shows footage of the couple walking rescue dog Beth (a Jack Russell) from Queen’s Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in Birkhall, their beloved Scottish home.

Camilla is dressed casually in jeans and a jacket, while Charles is in a tweed jacket and tie.

They talk idly about how Beth ate a mouse the last time they were there, and note that their grandchildren like to bounce on a rickety old bridge over the river that crosses their yard.

The two seem completely at ease in each other’s company, finishing each other’s sentences instinctively after so many decades together.

Camilla’s old friend Fiona Lansdowne, one of her new Lady Companions – a modern Lady in Waiting – and her other Lady in Attendance at the coronation, says of them: ‘They are an extraordinary team.

“And I think so, whether they had to fight a little bit to get there, or whether it’s just because they’ve been through a lot together – it’s made them have a really strong bond.”

The King and Queen celebrated Christmas Day at Sandringham with other members of the Royal Family and attended a church service at St. Mary Magdalene Church.

Charles was seen waving to the crowds who had gathered outside the Norfolk Church to wish him and his family a Happy Christmas.

He was closely followed by the Prince and Princess of Wales, who were accompanied by their children Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five.

In de herfst van 1942, midden in de oorlog, arriveerde een zwart metalen koffer met de initialen MHG in Buckingham Palace.

Niet veel om naar te kijken, de doos was geadresseerd aan koningin Elizabeth, koningin-gemalin van George VI (en later de koningin-moeder).

Er zat misschien een kleine aanwijzing in het beslist chique adres, ‘Polesdon Lacey, Dorking’, dat op de kofferbak stond aangegeven.

Toch moet de inhoud zeker een inademing hebben veroorzaakt van degene die het genoegen had het deksel op te tillen.

Want in de blikken doos lag een verzameling juwelen die zo mooi waren dat een aantal ervan vandaag de dag tot de meest gedragen stukken in het bezit van de koninklijke familie behoren.

De sprankelende inhoud was des te opmerkelijker vanwege wat ze vertegenwoordigen: een gelukkig einde van een verhaal ontsierd door Victoriaanse preutsheid. En omdat ze hun oorsprong hebben in flessen McEwens bier.

Toevallig heeft de collectie ook het antwoord gegeven op het raadsel van de mysterieuze ‘stomacher’ of corsage die koningin Camilla droeg tijdens de recente diplomatieke receptie in het Paleis.

Sieradenexperts waren stomverbaasd, maar ik kan je vertellen dat dit stuk, vrijwel zeker Cartier, een van de vele was die in 1942 uit die stam werd gevist.

De bron van de erfenis was wijlen Margaret Helen Greville, een vriendin van koningin Mary, schoonmoeder van Elizabeth, koningin-gemalin en grootmoeder van wijlen koningin Elizabeth II.

Margaret Greville was ook goede vrienden geweest met Alice Keppel, minnares van Edward VII. Ze was ook meter van Sonia Keppel, de grootmoeder van koningin Camilla.

Tegenwoordig wordt ze herinnerd als een filantroop, maar haar opmars in de sociale hiërarchie verliep verre van soepel.

Inderdaad, Koning George V was ontevreden over de band van zijn vrouw met Margaret Greville, een ongemak dat werd veroorzaakt door de relatie tussen zijn vrouw en Margaret Greville haar ingewikkelde en beslist onorthodoxe persoonlijke geschiedenis.

De rijkdom van Margaret Greville werd voor het eerst verworven door haar vader, William McEwan, de Schotse brouwer wiens bedrijf de flessen bier maakte die vandaag de dag nog steeds zijn naam dragen.

Toch had de schande gelokt toen hij een kind verwekte bij een dienstmeisje dat Helen Anderson heette.

Het is waar dat McEwan een vrijgezel was en geen familie had om te verraden, maar het kind was buitenechtelijk en dit was de 19e eeuw.

Dus betaalde McEwen voor een brouwerijmedewerker die behulpzaam William Anderson heette, om zich voor te doen als de echtgenoot van Helen, en in 1863 werd in Londen een dochter geboren.

Ze heette Margaretha.

Na de geboorte keerde Anderson terug naar zijn vrouw en kinderen in Edinburgh en zijn baan in de brouwerij.

Helen en baby Margaret bleven in Londen totdat een passende periode was verstreken en het passend werd geacht om naar het noorden terug te keren, Helen als ‘weduwe’.

In tegenstelling tot veel van dergelijke verhalen uit die tijd kende dit verhaal een happy end, want toen het kind de leeftijd van 21 jaar bereikte, trouwde het voormalige dienstmeisje, haar moeder, met de rijke brouwer.

Margaret werd zijn stiefdochter en enige erfgename – zoals hij graag vertelde aan iedereen die er toe deed.

Eind jaren tachtig van de negentiende eeuw verhuisden de McEwens naar een groot herenhuis tussen Park Lane en Piccadilly en Maggie verloofde zich met de onstuimige Ronald Greville, zoon van Lord Greville, de kabinetschef van Gladstone – en een vriend van de gezellige Prins van Wales, later Edward VII.

Ondanks een begin met grote moeilijkheden leidde ze een verguld leven – in sommige opzichten letterlijk.

In de Vanity Fair-uitgave van april 1891 werden huwelijkscadeaus vermeld, waaronder een tiara bestaande uit drie rivierhalskettingen, met vijf diamanten ter grootte van zes pence in het midden en een diamanten aigrette (een hoofddeksel ontworpen als veren van zilverreigers) van 18 inch en bezet met negen briljant geslepen diamanten.

Dit was slechts het begin van de spectaculaire collectie van Maggie Greville. Binnenkort zou ze een belangrijke klant zijn van Boucheron in Parijs, die bijvoorbeeld maakte wat we nu kennen als de Greville Tiara

In 1887 kocht Boucheron op een veiling een grote hoeveelheid sieraden die ooit toebehoorden aan de Franse koninklijke familie.

In 1901 werd de eerste versie van dit majestueuze stuk gemaakt.

Oorspronkelijk gemaakt om als kroon op het midden van het hoofd te worden gedragen met een papyrusbladontwerp, onderging het twee grote veranderingen.

In 1919 werd het vergroot zodat het lager op het hoofd gedragen kon worden. Vervolgens werd het in 1921 volledig ontmanteld om te worden gereset in de modieuze geometrische Art Deco-stijl die we vandaag de dag kennen.

In 1929 bezocht Margaret Greville Cartier London voor een diamanten halsketting met twee rijen. Negen jaar later bestelde ze een bijpassende ketting met drie rijen om hem nog mooier te maken, en wat we nu kennen als The Greville Festoon Necklace.

Francesca Cartier Brickell, auteur van The Cartiers en kleindochter van Jean-Jacques Cartier, vertelde me dat de jaren dertig met het koninklijke jubileum en de kroning een decennium van grote kettingen waren voor Cartier London.

Cartier maakte ook Maggie’s fantastische kroonluchteroorbellen, die wijlen koningin Elizabeth bij een aantal gelegenheden droeg en vorige week door de prinses van Wales werd gedragen tijdens de diplomatieke receptie.

Margaret Greville kocht smaragden die toebehoorden aan keizerin Josephine, diamanten van Marie Antoinette en een diamanten ring die toebehoorde aan Catharina de Grote.

Ze had parelkettingen die jaarlijks opnieuw geregen zouden worden, en volgens de biografie van Pam Burridge pochte ze ooit dat ze ‘heel Piccadilly zou kopen’.

Tegen de tijd van haar overlijden in 1942 en haar legaat had Margaret Greville haar relatie met George V al hersteld.

Het hielp ongetwijfeld toen ze op een gegeven moment beloofde haar spectaculaire huis, Polesden Lacey in Surrey, na te laten aan hun tweede zoon Bertie, de toenmalige hertog van York (die George VI werd).

Uiteindelijk werd het huis aan de National Trust overgelaten, omdat Bertie, inmiddels de koning, nauwelijks behoefte had aan onroerend goed.

Maar welke vrouw beweert ooit teveel sieraden te hebben?

Zeker niet koningin Elizabeth de koningin-moeder, of degenen die haar zijn gevolgd in het genieten – en tentoonspreiden – van de vrijgevigheid van Margaret Greville.

• Josie Goodbody is sieradenschrijver en auteur van mysterieromans

Queen Camilla’s family will be among 40 guests invited to this year’s Christmas dinner at Sandringham, while Harry and Meghan are expected to remain in the US.

In a major break with Christmas tradition, senior members of the royal family will be joined by Camilla’s children, grandchildren and sister at Sandringham House in Norfolk for the festive celebrations.

This differs from previous years, where Camilla left Sandringham in the afternoon to host Christmas dinner with her own family at Ray Mill, her home in Wiltshire.

Although no official guest list has been announced, this year’s event is expected to be bigger than ever, meaning the Christmas lunch will be moved from the traditional dining room to the ballroom.

Queen Camilla’s son Tom, her daughter Laura and their spouses are expected to attend this year. The Queen’s five grandchildren – Lola, Freddy, Eliza and twins Gus and Louis – will also join in for the Christmas meal.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry will remain in the US with Meghan and their two children Archie and Lilibet – despite recent hopes of a thaw in relations between King Charles and his youngest son.

The Sussexes even said they would accept an invitation to Sandringham this Christmas, it was reported.

King Charles is believed to be ‘very close’ to Camilla’s side of the family, with her three grandsons being her pages at the coronation, alongside her second cousin.

Camilla’s relatives will join senior members of the royal family, including Prince William and Princess Catherine and their three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Anne, Princess Royal and her husband Timothy Laurence are also expected to attend, alongside Anne’s son Peter Phillips and his daughters Savannah and Isla.

Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall and her husband Mike Tindall will also be there with their three children: Mia, Lena and Lucas.

Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, his wife Sophie and their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Earl of Wessex should also be present at the table – as well as Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

Princess Beatrice attended the event last year with her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, his son Christopher and their daughter Sienna.

Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, will attend with their two young sons, August and Ernest.

Camilla’s sister, Annabel Ellio, will also join her sister at Sandringham House. She is one of the ‘Queen’s Companions’, formerly known as ‘Ladies in Waiting’.

Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are believed to be staying at Wood Farm on the Norfolk estate. Although she and Prince Andrew have been divorced since 1996, the pair remain close friends and now jointly care for the late Queen’s Corgis, Muick and Sandy.

It has not been confirmed whether Fergie, who is carving out a new career for herself as a suffering aunt after an entertaining stint on ITV’s This Morning, will definitely be invited to Sandringham, but she will likely want to be with her grandchildren on the big day.

This year, Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, welcomed their second son Ernest into the world, who was born at the end of May.

It meant Fergie became a grandmother for the fourth time as she also has a step-grandson, Wolfie Mapelli Mozzi, seven, granddaughter Sienna Mapelli Mozzi, two, and August Brooksbank, three.

The royal festivities begin when everyone arrives on Christmas Eve. The family will open presents, some of which will be gag presents – one of the royal family’s traditions.

The family will then attend Christmas morning services at St Mary Magdalene Church, where crowds always gather to see the royals.

Once they get home, a Christmas lunch is served, followed by games in the afternoon.

Last Christmas the royals experienced their biggest change in decades as they celebrated their first festive period without Queen Elizabeth II, who had died just a few months earlier.

For decades he has been one of those shadows that flit discreetly about the upper reaches of society with friends in high places. Very high places.

Close to the Royal Family since boyhood, still an occasional escort of Princess Anne who, but for his Catholic faith, might have married him, and someone whose ex-wife, of course, is now the Queen.

A man about whom male chums would tell tales of his amorous adventures and legendary sexual prowess.

How gratifying then for Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, who has always batted away the more exaggerated stories of his bedroom conquests, to find that, 11 days short of his 84th birthday, he is still the subject of such admiring gossip.

This time, however, the object of his affection is receiving just as many headlines. Indeed, in the nation’s living rooms it is not the well-connected Parker Bowles who is the centre of attention, but Anne Robinson, 79, the Lancashire-born daughter of a market trader and the icy, deadpan former host of The Weakest Link and Countdown.

Reports of their late-life romance has enthralled not just the smart salons where the ex-soldier once cut a swathe, but those accustomed to the rolling countryside and drystone crannies of the Cotswolds where this improbable couple have become the most sought-after dinner table companions.

On the surface it would seem they have very little in common: Parker Bowles the ex-Household Cavalry officer, lampooned as the man who ‘laid down his wife for his country’; and twice-divorced Robinson, Annie to her friends, who boasts her own royal-style nickname — the ‘queen of mean’ for her withering TV put-downs.

Is it then a classic case of opposites attracting or is there something unexpected going on?

Certainly it is unlikely that the retired head of the Army veterinary service has ever dated anyone quite like Anne, whose mother sold chickens in Liverpool’s St John’s market.

But the Mail can reveal that it was Parker Bowles, whose food-writer son Tom, is the King’s godson, who has made the running in the relationship.

After learning that the two had been invited to the same local dinner party, having met previously, he asked his host to be seated next to the TV presenter, who lives in a magnificent converted barn.

Their shared love for this idyllic part of the English countryside has also played its part. For more than 14 months, I understand, the brigadier has quietly been making the journey from his home to hers some 31 miles away down unlit country lanes. It takes him under an hour.

Remarkably, until just over a week ago, their union was barely known about beyond the discreet drawing rooms of the Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire county set. But, in fact, it was a romance being conducted in plain sight.

One gathering numbered among its guests the newly ennobled Foreign Secretary Lord (David) Cameron of Chipping Norton, as well as one of his former Downing Street aides. Yet still the secret held.

So how did they meet and just what is the truth of a relationship that not even the scriptwriters of The Crown would dare come up with? It was hardly the most promising of occasions on which to light the fuse of romantic love: a reunion of old school friends gathered around a country house dining table, along with a retired monk as matchmaker.

Once a year, Anne organises a lunch at her home, set in seven landscaped acres, for her older brother Peter who lives in San Francisco. One of his old friends at Ampleforth, the North Yorkshire boarding school known as the Catholic Eton, is Father Felix Stevens with whom he played cricket for the college and who later went into the priesthood.

It was Father Felix, a former master of St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, and a neighbour of Anne’s, who suggested she include the brigadier — also one of his contemporaries at Ampleforth — on the guest list.

Former newspaper columnist Anne has remained uncharacteristically silent about just what triggered the friendship, but I understand that the attraction on that first encounter was mutual.

According to friends, they discovered they had more shared interests than they thought.

Anne is no Cotswolds-weekender or media-townie (she has had roots in the region for 40 years) and, since her divorce from her ex-journalist second husband John Penrose 15 years ago, has lived there full-time.

Horse racing aficionado Parker Bowles has been a widower since the death of his second wife, Rosemary from cancer in 2010.

He has remained at the former marital home in Wiltshire, with its close proximity to some of the country’s best-known race tracks where he is a familiar figure.

Anne too loves racing yet, incredibly, the pair have avoided being photographed together. The reason for this, I am told, is because they both wanted to keep things quiet for as long as possible.

It is also likely that Parker Bowles, who has always been discreet about his life, was determined not to cause a show’, as one friend put it to me, in the busy 15 months in which his ex-wife Camilla has been the focus of such intense worldwide interest following the death of Queen Elizabeth and her May coronation.

Parker Bowles has remained close to Camilla despite their divorce 28 years ago and has had a front seat at her remarkable transformation from the hated ‘third person’ in Princess Diana’s marriage to the King’s respected first lady.

He was a guest at her Windsor wedding to the then Prince Charles in 2005 and had a prominent position at the Coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey alongside his son, who is divorced, and his married daughter Laura.

As for Annie, after two failed marriages — and a daughter Emma by her first husband, the late Times editor Charles Wilson, who like Parker Bowles was a member of the Jockey Club — she too has no wish for any attention.

So what is it about Parker Bowles that she finds attractive? ‘Well,’ says a figure who knows them both, ‘Andrew is still jolly good looking. Of course she knows about his reputation.’

Perhaps we should look at what Anne has said on the subject of male company. Her ideal man, she once said, would be someone who is ‘funny, clever, has integrity, will pick up the restaurant tab and not talk about himself all the time.’ According to another close figure, Andrew ticks all those boxes. Anne finds the debonair ex-Guards officer ‘funny, charming and a very competent cook’.

He is also remarkably unstuffy. ‘One of the best things about APB is that he never complains,’ says one long-time friend. ‘When you think of all the c*** he has put up with over the past 40 years, he has just said nothing.’

She is also well aware of his reputation as a ladies man who was one of the inspirations for author Jilly Cooper’s most celebrated characters, the ruthless and caddish Rupert Campbell-Black, the anti-hero of the bonkbuster novel Riders.

In the book, Campbell-Black is described as ‘well-constructed. Usually, men with such long legs had short bodies but Rupert, from the broad flat shoulders to the lean muscular hips and powerful thighs, seemed perfectly in proportion.’

The same might be said of Parker Bowles, who was one of four figures on whom Miss Cooper modelled her hard-riding, free-loving upper- class bounder.

Age may have robbed him of some of that virility, but he has lost none of his celebrated charm. ‘He’s old school — dogs, sporting events, the country and Annie loves all that too,’ says one of her circle.

‘People have often misjudged her as some pushy upstart from Liverpool. She was expensively educated at Farnborough Hill, the private Catholic girls convent and at Les Ambassadrices, a finishing school in Paris.’ But there is one other significant factor. For Anne is as blunt in private as she is direct in public. Indeed she once told Camilla (before she was Queen) to get a proper bra fitting.

‘Andrew loves that,’ says one Cotswolds neighbour. ‘I would say there are similarities between Anne’s sharp wit and Camilla’s rather waspish turn of phrase.’

All the same it is difficult to reconcile Robinson — whose autobiography Memoirs Of An Unfit Mother went into unflinching detail about her alcoholism, losing custody of her daughter and battle for sobriety before finding her TV success — with the erudite Parker Bowles whose parents were close friends of the Queen Mother and who at 13 was a pageboy at Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1953.

One figure who has followed this intriguing match is Queen Camilla. She is understood to be amused by the flowering of romantic love between her ex-husband who is always scrupulously polite and acid-tongued Anne who famously dispatched quiz contestants with the withering phrase: ‘You are the weakest link, goodbye.’

She is said to be supportive of the relationship.

In fact the more you look at the two, the more sensible the developing friendship seems. Both have been married twice, both have grandchildren they adore and both have long lived in the public eye.

All the same, their lives, now so richly entwined, reached this point in vastly different ways.

Parker Bowles has mixed with royalty since childhood — his father Derek and formidable mother Anne, chief commissioner of the Girl Guides — were friends of the Queen Mother. After their deaths Andrew found himself elevated to the status of royal favourite.

From Ampleforth he went to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards in 1960 serving in Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe, where he was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery.

He was one of the first on the scene when the IRA detonated a bomb in Hyde Park killing four soldiers and slaughtering seven horses.

A courageous horseman himself, he rode in the 1969 Grand National, finishing a creditable 11th. He was 25 when he met the teenage Camilla at her coming out party as a debutante in March 1965.

They met again at a party in Scotland the following year, when legend has it that she arrived with one boyfriend and left having replaced him with Andrew, a dashing subaltern.

It was a tempestuous relationship but Parker Bowles was an unreliable and unfaithful boyfriend who couldn’t resist other women, including Camilla’s friends, and found to his considerable pleasure that the ladies found him irresistible.

He was at one time described as ‘London’s best — and busiest — lover’. So busy, in fact, that he temporarily ditched Camilla to embark on an affair with the then 19-year-old Princess Anne — a scenario gratuitously immortalised in season three of The Crown. In it the two lovers are seen enjoying a post-sex Bloody Mary.

Marriage with the Queen’s daughter was out of the question because of his faith, but they have remained life-long pals and Parker Bowles is godfather to the princess’s daughter Zara.

Other girls came and went before he finally settled on Camilla — to Prince Charles’s heartbreak who had fallen head over heels for the earthy young woman so unlike the demure aristocrat’s daughters he usually dated.

‘I suppose the feeling of emptiness will pass eventually,’ he wrote at the time to his uncle Lord Mountbatten.

But being married to Camilla did not see Andrew ending his bachelor habits and his philandering continued.

The marriage survived until Charles’ TV confession in which he admitted his adultery and the couple divorced in 1995.

A year later, Parker Bowles quietly remarried divorcee Rose Pitman — whose former husband was part of the famous Pitman shorthand family — and with whom he remained until her death 13 years ago. Throughout these turbulent years, he stayed discreet not just about his royal connections but also his womanising.

Despite her stellar career as a Fleet Street columnist, editor and star TV presenter, Anne has had her fair share of heartbreak. Her first husband was granted custody of their daughter against a backdrop of her then heavy drinking.

Two years after giving up alcohol in 1978 she remarried, but the marriage ended in divorce in 2008. She later suggested that the mismatch of success and wealth had proved too much of a strain on their relationship.

‘No mother puts her son on her knee and teaches him what to do when he grows up and marries someone who earns more money and might even be smarter than him,’ she told one interviewer.

There is no danger, I am told, of history repeating itself in this sense. ‘For a start,’ says a friend, ‘Annie and Andrew aren’t married.’

Parker Bowles has also had a successful business career since leaving the Army and doesn’t just live on his military pension. He is a director of several property and hotel companies and is comfortably off.

So what might the future for this odd couple?

Anne once said: ‘I’m not going to marry a third time. It is not necessary [and] it is quite hard at my age to find someone that punches at your weight. I am quite demanding.’

But then that was before the oh-so charming Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles came galloping into her life.

For decades he has scrupulously refrained from uttering a word in public about his family or any of his friends. But today Brigadier General Andrew Parker Bowles is making an exception, following the death of the man he describes as ‘the best company in the world’.

In a heartfelt tribute, Parker Bowles – first husband and loyal friend of Queen Camilla – recalls in particular the darkest hour of his life, on July 20, 1982, when, as Commanding Officer of the Household Cavalry Regiment, four of his men and seven horses were killed by an IRA bomb.

In the aftermath of the attack, he received a letter from Ireland that he has kept ever since. ‘Wait a second. I get it,” he says, before reading the opening paragraph. ‘Dear Andrew, It’s been a long time since we’ve had contact. I’m just sorry that it’s such a terrible event that should bring us back into contact with each other. It may be difficult for you to understand the disgust that ordinary people in this country feel for the scum who have killed, supposedly in the name of Ireland.’

The writer was his friend Jonathan Irwin, who died on Sunday at the age of 82. At the time, Irwin, a buccaneer, Old Etonian Anglo-Irish, director of Goffs, the Irish blood auctioneers and, as Parker Bowles puts it, ‘a big figure there, involved in foot racing in Ireland. He said: ‘We would like to buy horses to replace the horses that have been killed.’

It was a remarkable offer. ‘I was very moved. Things were very difficult in Ireland at the time.’

Irwin was true to his word. ‘He brought everyone together and got his board to agree to give us £50,000.’

Irwin’s statement about the aversion to ‘the common man’ in Ireland also proved correct. Parker Bowles received letter after letter from Ireland expressing his disdain for the IRA, many with money orders attached. ‘Another £40,000 came in. After receiving the checks and discussing them with Jonathan, we decided it would be better to give them to the families of the dead.”

But the new horses for the Household Cavalry – purchased by the Ministry of Defense – did come from Ireland. “Probably 95 percent of the black horses still do that,” Parker Bowles reflects.

His friend endured the loss of one of the sons from his first marriage, to Mikaela Rawlinson, daughter of the late Attorney General Lord Rawlinson, and two more from his second marriage, to Mary Ann O’Brien.

But he and Mary Ann founded the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation – “a wonderful charity,” says Parker Bowles. ‘Jonathan was charming, he was entertaining – the best company in the world. And when he believed in a cause, it wasn’t talk, it was action. He was a man of action. A real man.’

Known for his no-nonsense demand to ‘give us the money’ at Live Aid, Bob Geldof could be forgiven if he made the same plea now as his company has lost £1.6m in investment.

The confused rock star, 72, has seen the value of Bcraft Ltd fall from £20.8m to £19.2m, with the accounts putting this down to plummeting assets.

Newly released figures show the losses all stem from his investments, which fell by £12.6m to £11m.

Lady Helen joins the carol group – as a shepherd!

Lady Helen Taylor was Giorgio Armani’s muse for seventeen years and grew tired of wearing only his muted designs to public events. She once noted, “There is a limit to the number of navy blue jackets and white shirts you can wear in a year.” Now freed from her contract with the Italian fashion house, the 59-year-old daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Kent is drawing inspiration from a more diverse range of sources.

This week she appeared at a Christmas carol concert in Christ Church Kensington, west London, in a colorful, draped dress not unlike that worn by a shepherd in a nativity play. Lady Helen’s dress came from the collaboration between retail chain Jigsaw and designer Roksanda. Underneath her dress she wore a sparkling silver turtleneck, also from Jigsaw, and a pair of platform boots that were definitely not found in Bethlehem.

A big day for Forte’s little girl

Hotels heiress Irene Forte has made her own name with a successful skincare brand, but her focus this week was on holy water. Her eight-month-old daughter, Alisea, was baptized at Farm Street Roman Catholic Church in Mayfair.

The godparents included Petra Palumbo, daughter of Lord (Peter) Palumbo, a property developer who was a confidante of Princess Diana. “An important day for our special Alisea, the star of the show,” says Irene, daughter of Sir Rocco Forte. Oxford-educated Irene, 34, married tech boss Felix Winckler, 38, in Sicily in 2021 in a lavish wedding attended by her close friend Princess Eugenie.

Shoplifters target royal tailor Fedro

London’s shoplifting epidemic has even reached Savile Row, where King Charles buys his suits. Fedro Gaudenzi, who makes bespoke outfits for clients including members of the royal family, says a £25,000 jumpsuit was stolen straight from the railing of his Savile Row studio by two well-dressed women last Saturday – and he is appealing for its safe return.

The unique garment took more than 2,400 hours to make and consists of 45 meters of high-quality silk chiffon. Gaudenizi says there was no price tag on the garment. “They probably just saw the piece in the window and really liked it,” he says. “I don’t think they stole it to resell; I think they wanted to wear it or for photos on social media.” The thieves are said to have smuggled the delicate jumpsuit out of the store in a Louis Vuitton handbag

Joe Wicks became the nation’s favorite PE teacher during lockdown, but he appears to have been a pain in the ass at school. “I don’t think I was always the nicest guy as a teenager, especially to friends and stuff,” admits the 38-year-old Body Coach guru who loves burpees.

‘I could have been nicer and more polite. At school I was also quite stubborn and lazy.’

He adds, “That’s all part of growing up, and you learn from your mistakes. Now I am always kind and respectful to everyone I meet.”

Emilia reveals love secrets

Mills & Boon, eat your heart out! Silent Witness star Emilia Fox says of her boyfriend, TV producer Jonathan Stadlen, 44: ‘We go to bed and tell each other every night how much we love each other. “We’ve been together for almost three years and we’re still going strong.” Fox, 49, who was previously married to Mad Men star Jared Harris, 62, says: ‘We feel like we’re married, but we’re not married. “We choose to marry each other every day, not in an official capacity, but by choosing to be with each other. So it is a daily marriage of love.”

According to reports, Anne Robinson has been in a secret relationship with Camilla’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles for a year.

The former Countdown presenter, 79, who has the TV nickname ‘The Queen of Mean’, is said to have found love with the twice-married retired army brigadier general, 83, after being introduced by a mutual friend.

Their reported relationship is said to be an ‘open secret’ within high society, with Andrew a regular at Anne’s dinner parties at her 17th century home in the Cotswolds.

Insiders say one of their first dates was a dinner party attended by ex-Prime Minister David Cameron, where Andrew was able to ‘prank’ the presenter, who is known for her sharp tongue.

When asked about their romance by The sunAnne, who has also been married twice, hit back: “It’s none of your business.”

A source said The sun: ‘They were wise not to have their picture taken together, because 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 often makes him laugh, and he is one of the few people who can get away with making fun of her.

‘She likes to joke that she is ‘new money’ – despite going to boarding school, her father got a double first prize and she holidayed at The Carlton in Cannes for part of the summer, when she wasn’t chasing the her mother’s stall worked. They were set up by a mutual friend.’

Both Anne and Andrew have been married twice.

Anne married the journalist Charles Wilson in 1968. In 1970, the couple had a daughter, Emma Wilson, who became a British radio disc jockey.

The presenter married journalist John Penrose in 1980, but they split in 2007 and announced their plans to divorce, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’.

Andrew, meanwhile, divorced Camilla in 1995 after 22 years of marriage, but remains close friends – despite a complicated history involving infidelity on both sides.

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

They have two children: food writer Tom and Laura Lopes, an artist.

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.

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.

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