Princess Anne's 'complicated love quadrangle' with Camilla, Charles, and Andrew Parker Bowles unveiled

Princess Anne's 'complicated love quadrangle' with Andrew Parker-Bowles, the Queen consort Camilla, and King Charles has been explored in an eye-opening documentary.

• The Princess Royal was previously involved in a messy love quadrangle involving her own brother and another couple.
• These complicated relationships have been explored in a documentary about Princess Anne's romantic history, titled, The Seven Loves of Princess Anne.
• In other royal news, Here is how Kate Middleton played a pivotal role in Carole's £24m business that started as a garden shed hobby.

On January 20, 2023, BBC re-released a documentary titled, The Seven Loves of Princess Anne. This documentary explored the different relationships that the Princess Royal has been involved in over the course of her life, including her more surprising entanglement in a 'complicated love quadrangle'.

It has been well-established that before he married, Queen Camilla's ex-husband dated Princess Anne for a period in the 1970s. Around the same time, Camilla dated Charles meaning both Anne and Charles were having affairs with Camilla and Andrew, who were supposed to be in a relationship with one other at the time. 

"Andrew and Camilla were supposed to be dating each other, but in their spare time, they were dating others and who they were dating was the heir to the throne and his sister. I mean it's a very glamourous foursome," said Richard Kay, editor-at-large at Daily Mail, in the documentary.

Speakers in the documentary suggested that in actual fact, the reason Camilla and Charles got together and began dating was because Camilla Shand (as she was formerly known) was seeking revenge on her boyfriend, Andrew Parker-Bowles. 

"It was thought that when he cheated on Camilla with Princess Anne, that Camilla decided to get a bit of revenge, and that was when she actually started up her own relationship with Prince Charles." said Victoria Howard, editor of The Crown Chronicles in the documentary.

Of course following her relationship with the then Prince of Wales, Camilla went on to marry Andrew Parker-Bowles, become Camilla Parker-Bowles, and have two children, Tom and Laura. Of course, the couple then split in 1995, and 10 years later in 2005, Camilla and Charles married and have been together ever since.

Experts suggested that rather than seeing this 'complicated love quadrangle' as something dangerous and a salacious piece of gossip that the press would eat up, the Princess Royal had a much more simple view of this messy entanglement.

"There's very much a sense of 'Well if a guy can do it, why can't I?' from Princess Anne," said Victoria who theorized that the Princess was rather relaxed about this affair.

Another expert suggested that actually, Andrew could have been a potential suitor for Princess Anne's hand in marriage.

"Andrew Parker-Bowles, I think, was a serious contender, a very distinguished army officer as well, and a very great favorite of the Queen," said Brian Hoey, official biographer to Princess Anne. Andrew was also the godson of the Queen Mother and even attended the Queen's coronation. Some say he was considered to be part of the safe social circle of the Royal Family.

Princess Anne and Andrew Parker-Bowles were not meant to be, but the pair remained close throughout their lives and were pictured at many races together, sharing their love of equestrian sports. 

As recently as 2022, Anne and Andrew were pictured chatting at Ascot races, showing their friendship has persevered.