Why could Charles not marry Camilla? Are Charles and Camilla legally married?

According to Bedell Smith, right from the start, Charles adored the then Camilla Shand, who is close in age to Charles and always treated him as an equal rather than someone she idolized.

However, the royal family wasn’t interested in having Camilla as its princess. For one thing, she was perceived as an “experienced” woman, which was a nonstarter for the royal family back then in terms of their notion of a suitable spouse for Prince Charles.

For another, she wasn’t perceived as “aristocratic” enough to be a princess according to a report by the Daily Mail on another biography of Prince Charles.

Are Charles and Camilla legally married?

Charles was the only member of the royal family to have a civil rather than a church wedding in England. Government documents from the 1950s and 1960s, published by BBC, stated that such marriage was illegal, though these were dismissed by Charles Spokesman, and explained to be obsolete by the sitting government.

Charles’s parents did not attend the civil marriage ceremony and the Queen’s reluctance to attend possibly arose from her position as Supreme Governor of the Charles of England.