Queen Camilla’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles WILL be at Westminster Abbey to watch Charles’s coronation, report says – despite Fergie not being invited to the occasion
Queen Consort Camilla’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles is going to be at Westminster Abbey to watch Charles’s coronation, a report has revealed.
According to The Sunday Times, the Queen’s former husband will be ‘front and centre’ of the congregation to watch his first wife be crowned next to King Charles.
He and Camilla, who married in 1973, have two children, food critic Tom Parker Bowles and art curator Laura Lopes. Camilla married Prince Charles in 2005, while Parker Bowles exchanged vows with Rosemary Pitman in 1996. She died in 2010.
They separated in the 1980s, finally divorcing in 1995, with a royal biographer once remarking: ‘It is said that an English gentleman will always lay down his wife for his country and this was certainly true in the case of Andrew Parker Bowles.’
It comes after it was revealed that Prince Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson has not been invited to the grand occasion on Saturday 6 May.
Camilla and Andrew share two children, Tom Parker Bowles, 48, a food writer and Laura Lopes, 45, a gallerist – with Tom’s son Freddie, and Laura’s twin sons Gus and Louis, all 13, set to be Camilla’s pages of honour.
The publication reports that they will be carrying the train of her robes during the grand ceremony at the coronation. Friends of Mr Parker Bowles told the paper that he was ‘very naughty with women’ and a ‘bit of a rogue’.
Earlier this week, Sarah Ferguson broke her silence on her Coronation snub. The Duchess of York, 63, said that she’s not offended while speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, citing her divorce from Prince Andrew.
She told presenters Kate Garraway and Adil Ray: ‘I’m not [going], it’s a state occasion, and being divorced I don’t think you can have it both ways. ‘I am divorced and I’m really loving being divorced to my ex-husband, not from him but to him, it’s important to differentiate.’
She added that just because she’s ‘not there on the state occasion’, she can still ‘be there’ in private.
‘That’s a lovely feeling to be part of, it really is,’ she continued, ‘and as I said you can’t have it both ways. You mustn’t sit on the fence. You’re either in or out, don’t muck around.’
She added: ‘The great thing about this moment in time is the unity of family, and I think that Charles and Camilla are doing an exceptional job at unifying the family.’
Elsewhere Sarah said the ‘spotlight needs to come off’ Prince Andrew to let him get ‘on with his life’. Royal commentator Tom Bower previously told MailOnline that Sarah had excluded herself because of her previous ‘conduct’.
He added that her presence would ‘provoke critical comment, which King Charles doesn’t need’. And expert Richard Fitzwilliams praised the ‘extremely wise’ decision from the King because she has been an ’embarrassment to the Royal Family for many years’.
But the apparent decision has surprised some royal watchers – with Meghan’s friend Omid Scobie tweeting: ‘If true, this feels kinda cruel, no?’
Speaking about the absence of Sarah, Mr Bower said she will be left out ‘because she is not a member of the Royal Family’.
He added that she had excluded herself ‘by her past conduct’, saying: ‘Her presence would provoke critical comment which Charles doesn’t need.’
