Queen Camilla‘s son, Tom Parker Bowles, wouldn’t want to live in Prince William and Prince Harry’s world because he knows from first-hand experience how hard it is to live with the British press constantly on your back.
The food critic briefly talked about his relationship with the press while looking back at the “very height of the tabloid era” when word got around about his mother’s affair with then Prince Charles. He remembered the relentless attacks of the paparazzi at his mother and “being chased at 100mph by paps trying to get a shot” and his “mother being screamed at to try to get a reaction.”
“Pushing, jostling. It was horrific, and you are protective of your mother,” he said in an interview with The Telegraph adding that the family eventually managed to get used to having the paparazzi watching them although he found the press intrusion “barbaric.”
He continued: “Counting how many paps were at the gates, to see who was watching us and taking photographs: it was all as normal as bacon and eggs in the morning. You didn’t think of it in any other way.”
Although the 49-year-old doesn’t have much of a relationship with William and Harry, he sympathizes with them because of their shared experience with the press. He acknowledged though that his is nothing compared to what the brothers have to go through everyday growing up under the glare of the camera lights and with their movements constantly being monitored day in and day out.
“I learned a long time ago not to put my fat fingers into the world of William and Harry,” Bowles shared and said that “it was appalling what they went through.” He added: “I’ve had a billionth of what they’ve had to go through but hell, I sympathize.”
Bowles, author of Cooking & The Crown, rarely speaks about his stepbrothers and of his stepfather King Charles III. While he’s appeared in some royal events with Queen Camilla, there’s really nothing to show he has a close relationship with his step-family. But perhaps his first-ever invite to spend Christmas in Sandringham with the Royals this year could change that.
The food writer shared that his mother specifically asked him to come. He thinks she must be feeling nostalgic especially with everything that’s happened to her and King Charles III, health-wise.
“My mum said ‘I’d love you to come, I haven’t had Christmas with you for a long time.’ It has been a hell of a two years for them. The older you get, the more conscious you become of mortality, especially with illnesses and the rest of it,” he shared.
Noting that it’s not 100 percent confirmed, Bowles said he plans to take his mother’s offer and bring his family to Norfolk for Christmas Day. He said he usually spends the holiday with his ex-wife Sara Buy and their teenaged children Lola and Frederick.
“For the past 15 years it has been: I go back to my ex-wife’s house, sit in my tracksuit bottoms, go to the pub while the beef’s in, then try to get my children to watch The Wild Geese. Classic. So this would be a bit different,” Bowles shared and admitted that he knows nothing about what happens during Christmas in Sandringham with the Royals except that “there’s turkey and sprouts and church” and that he has to bring a suit and a dinner jacket.