A shocking revelation has resurfaced from the early days of King Charles’s life, shedding light on his deep and daring affection for Camilla Parker Bowles just days before his wedding to Princess Diana.
The account comes from Stephen Barry, who once served as the then Prince Charles’s personal valet. Barry’s observations were later detailed by veteran journalist James Whitaker in his 1993 book Diana Vs Charles, which explored the turbulent relationship between the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Whitaker revealed that before Charles and Diana’s lavish 1981 wedding, Queen Elizabeth hosted a grand reception attended by royals, dignitaries, and international guests. Among the attendees were Andrew Parker Bowles and his wife, Camilla.
During the glittering reception, Charles reportedly made a bold and unexpected gesture — he asked Camilla to dance. “Just one dance,” Whitaker wrote, “but then she would see him again late that night.”
It was that late night encounter which, according to insiders, shocked even those closest to the prince. Whitaker disclosed, “One of two people who spoke to me of Charles and Camilla’s late night liaison was the prince’s valet, Stephen Barry.”
Barry, who served Charles with loyalty for years, later published two books about his time in royal service. Rather than exposing scandals, he chose to portray a respectful and idealized version of palace life. Still, in private, he was known to express disbelief over Charles’s actions in the days leading up to his wedding.
“When the royal wedding was mentioned,” Whitaker wrote, “Barry would shake his head in disappointment. He told friends he could not believe Charles would take such a risk, carrying on with Camilla right up to the final moments of his bachelorhood.”
According to Whitaker, Barry confided, “Sir had always been infatuated with Camilla since they first knew each other in the early 1970s. But when he took her to bed in the very week of his wedding, it seemed incredible. Certainly incredibly daring, if not incredibly foolish.”
The revelation paints a vivid picture of the emotional turmoil and divided loyalties that defined the young prince’s final days before marriage. Despite the fairy tale image projected to the world, Charles’s heart reportedly remained with Camilla, creating tensions that would later destroy his marriage to Diana.
In the same book, Whitaker described how Diana had already moved into Buckingham Palace ahead of the wedding. She was staying in a suite of rooms right next to Charles’s a symbolic closeness that, in reality, masked growing emotional distance.
On the night of the ball, held on 27 July 1981, Diana retired to Clarence House, the Queen Mother’s London residence. It was from there that she would later begin her iconic carriage ride to St Paul’s Cathedral, where she would marry Charles before millions of viewers around the world.
Meanwhile, few at the time were aware of Charles’s private movements that evening. Those in his inner circle, like Stephen Barry, remained silent but the shock lingered for years. Barry’s recollection of the prince’s decision to see Camilla that week is now being remembered as one of the most daring and controversial moments in royal history.
The revelation also adds a new layer to the long-standing narrative of Charles and Camilla’s love story — one that began in the early 1970s and survived decades of public scrutiny, scandal, and heartbreak.
What seemed at the time to be an act of recklessness later evolved into the enduring bond that defines King Charles and Queen Camilla’s relationship today. Yet, for those who served him then, like Stephen Barry, the memory of that fateful week remains a startling reminder of just how complicated the royal romance truly was.
