Charles And Camilla Go Public
Wars may be raging elsewhere. The economic balance of the planet may be in question. But in London Thursday night, everyone's attention was on a posh hotel, when two people left a party and got in a car.
As CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports, they weren't just ordinary people. She was Camilla Parker Bowles, arriving for a birthday party. He was Prince Charles, who dropped by from his palace around the corner.
That the two are an item has been public knowledge for years. But they have never had their picture taken together in public - at least, not since they were a lot younger and not yet married to other people.
Now the time has been deemed right to end all their famous sneaking around.
"Him going out the back door, her going out the side door. They want to put a stop to that," says news photographer Arthur Edwards.
Thursday's event, a birthday party for Parker Bowles' sister, Annabel, had been promised as the first official viewing of the couple together, the official recognition of an affair that has gone on for more than 25 years and destroyed two marriages.
And then finally, around midnight, two not particularly glamorous middle-aged divorcees confirmed what everybody knew: That they were an item.
How is this development being handled by the British press Friday? CBS News Consultant David Starkey, honorary lecturer in history at the London School of Economics and and an expert on the monarchy, says, "I think it's playing out very well. But, then, it's beenÂ…the most deliberately trailed public relations event since Adam and Eve got together all those years ago."
Since the press and public have known about the relationship for many years, why was Thursday chosen as the time for its official acknowledgment?
Starkey says the timing may have been dictated by the upcoming nuptials of Charles' brother, Prince Edward. "The last thing Charles and Camilla wanted to do was to upstage the couple by appearing together at that, so they're getting it out of the way first."
Although it is likely Parker Bowles will appear with Prince Charles at the wedding, she might not sit with him. "I mean, that would really be raising fundamental questions," Starkey explains. "She would then actually be appearing not so much as a mistress or a consort... We haven't got to that point."
How do Charles' sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, feel about the official recognition of their father's relationship with Park Bowles?
"As far as we can tell," says Starkey, "William and Harry seem to get on with CamillaÂ… She's the woman who has made their father happy. There is no pointÂ…in taking sides on this one. Diana is dead. Being rude to Camilla won't bring her back."
The reaction of Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth, is another matter. Starkey says he thinks the queen "does take the view that it is this relationship which destroyed the marriage, and it is tis relationship which has done so much damage to the monarchy.
"Equally, she, too, is a mother and a grandmother as well as a queen," Starkey concludes, "andÂ…if this is the only thing that's going to make Charles happy, I don't think she'll stand in his way."
Whether or not the couple eventually marry depends very much on public opinion. Although the Church of England frowns upon second marriages of people who are divorced, it does not wield as much power as it did in the 1930s, when Edward VIII was forced to abdicate in order to marry Wallis Simpson. So if Prince Charles wants to, whether the Church of England wants it or not, he could remarry without forfeiting the throne, says Starkey.