The Royal Family is known for maintaining friendly relationships with their exes (just look at Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson), and Queen Camilla shares a similarly amicable rapport with her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles. However, it turns out the former “lothario” of the aristocratic set inspired a character in a popular new Disney+ series—and Camilla was the first to check it out.
According to the Times, Queen Camilla “adored Rivals, the racy television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel.” The show is a small screen version of Cooper’s 1988 novel of the same name, which follows womanizing Olympic show jumper turned politician Rupert Campbell-Black—whose character was inspired by none other than Andrew Parker Bowles, 84.
The Queen married her first husband in 1973 and shares two children, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles—who are set to join the Royal Family at Christmas for the first time this year—with Andrew, who is a retired British Army officer and used to date Princess Anne. Although Her Majesty and Parker Bowles divorced in 1995, they maintain an amicable relationship.
n terms of aristocratic circles, former polo player and amateur jockey Parker Bowles also counts Princess Anne and Rivals novelist Cooper as close pals. “He’s been a great friend for a long time…so he’s very like Rupert. He’s beautiful and blond and stunning,” the author—who is also a friend of Queen Camilla’s—said of her character Rupert Campbell-Black during an October episode of the How to Fail podcast.
