Here are some photos of Andrew Parker Bowles hanging out with the Princess Royal, HRH Princess Anne, on March 10th and 11th. They spent time together at the Cheltenham Festival. It’s especially interesting, I suppose, because Anne and Andrew were once lovers and then he married Camilla Parker Bowles. Then Camilla and Prince Charles had an affair throughout the Parker-Bowles’ marriage, then Andrew and Camilla divorced, and Andrew and Anne are somehow still good friends. Andrew and Camilla are still chummy too, and not just for their kids and grandkids. Basically, the whole thing is incredibly incestuous, but it’s just the way the British blue bloods operate.
Why bring up this old history? Because Andrew Parker Bowles has tested positive for the coronavirus, and now people are like “but he was hanging out with royalty just a few weeks ago!”
The former husband of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for coronavirus. Andrew Parker-Bowles, 80, was one of many attendees at the Cheltenham Festival earlier this month who has reported symptoms of the respiratory illness, according to The Telegraph. The annual horse racing event went on as scheduled between March 10 and March 13 despite fears surrounding the outbreak, attracting over 250,000 people over four days.
Parker-Bowles, who announced his divorce from Camilla in 1995 after 22 year of marriage, was spotted with Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth‘s 69-year-old daughter, on at least two days during the event. Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, was also in close contact with him on March 10, the first day of the festival.
Yikes at the festival being some kind of ground-zero for a deadly viral infection. As I keep saying though, it feels like London – and now the Cheltenham Festival – was a viral hotbed during that same seven-day period, roughly March 7th through March 14th. There were tons of big, public events in London and no one was self-isolating or social distancing yet and so many infections happened during that seven-day period. Anyway, I hope Andrew is okay, and I hope Anne and Zara are fine too. As far as anyone knows, Anne is currently self-isolating in her estate, Gatcombe Park. But! Anne was one of the last Windsor royals to shut down her public schedule. She was still doing events on March 16th/17th. Hm.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I am praying for Rupert Campbell-Black’s full recovery.
I always liked Parker-Bowels for some reason.
Fantastic!
I’m more concerned about Billy Lloyd Fox than Rupert. I figure Jake’s either a goner or so isolated that there’s no concern. Not much middle ground with him
Spoiler alert – didn’t Billy die of cancer??
Jake died..
BayTampaBay, You beat me to it. I was just about to comment on Parker-Bowles being the inspiration for a character in Jilly Cooper’s Riders novel, about horses and, uh, “riding.” I haven’t read this one, but I have read some of her others and they are ridiculous but fun totally escapist romances.
Per Jilly Cooper, Rupert Campbell-Black was primarily based on two men Andrew Parker-Bowles and David Somerset, the late Duke of Beaufort.
Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles are the most excellent trashy fun. They are great novels to read if you are on a long air flight or a long car journey.
If the UK public health authorities do proper contact tracing, they may discover that their beloved Royal Family were sharing and spreading the virus quite a bit……
Yup, when you consider the size of the events they were doing and how long they continued to do those events – even Will and Kate going to Ireland just seemed like a bad idea at the time.
There is probably more truth to William’s dumb joke than he realized.
I’m sure Princess Anne has been tested.
I wonder what she is doing. Her whole career is about doing events.
What does one do when stuck inside.
Camilla no doubt has seen her ex at events involving their children and grandchildren. I do think he sees their family with his ex at Raymill. Though she tested negative.
There’s been a lot of criticism about the Cheltenham Festival running earlier this month. We have seen a big leap of cases/ deaths this week in the UK and people are linking it to the fact that UK should have been on lock down much earlier.
Anyone who got the virus at Cheltenham will likely be showing symptoms now.
Yeah and does anyone remember Zara’s husband, Mike Tindall making an ass of himself tweeting that everyone was over-reacting to the virus threat and that he and Zara were definitely enjoying the Cheltenham event because they felt it was all overblown? The egos of this set are just amazing.
@JALCL Well, he’s a dick. Remember his dwarf-tossing stunt in (I think) New Zealand? They’ve all got their heads planted in their fundaments. Frankly, I’ve always disliked Zara’s public persona: the ‘I’m so down to earth, bollocks to Mummy being a Princess [insert further expletives here]’ has provided a useful cover up for her shady dealings with various businessmen. And Tindall is no better.
@Andrew’s Nemesis – I believe all you say is true. That said, why are Mike & Zara so “popular” for want of a better world?
I have always thought that Mike did not come off as the sharpest tool in the shed but I did not know if this is true or just a personna he wears for the tabloid media.
My only comment besides I hope everyone comes through this all right is what is so unusual or “incestuous” to be nice with your exes? I am friends with all mine except the abusive one. When they hurt your cat, it’s time to pack! And yes some of them have dated and married friends of mine. I think the bigger problem is your leader and mine downplayed this way too long and didn’t start protecting their citizens when they could have and now WE are paying for them being idiots!!!
Far too sensible Jan
The amount of extramarital affairs between the four of them is A LOT. It’s messy.
Add to that they’re also godparents to the children. It’s EXTREMELY messy.
Yeah, that set was intense – kinda makes you wish their was internet back then to better record it all for posterity. Wasn’t Diana’s older sister also a part of it?
I’m pretty sure none of that set ever really stopped messing around with each other.
It’s not incestuous to be nice to your exes. What’s incestuous is brothers and sisters hooking up with couple, and the whole idea that this social set are all kind of sort of related to each other.
@Jan Agreed. I’m friends with a number of exes (I tend to get on better with chaps as friends, it seems); though there are some I’d NEVER have anything to do with EVER again. The one who gave my cat cocaine, for example. Or the one who cried when anyone disagreed with him. The narcissist (needs no further explanation). On the whole, though, one picks these people because of sympathetic character traits: why cut them out because you’re no longer sharing a toothbrush?
Didn’t princess Anne’s daughter Zara refuse to self isolate after her trip to Italy in late Feb? She and her husband visited one of the hard hit areas, but couldn’t be bothered to stay home.
Aw man, AP-B is one of the few British aristos that’s never looked like a troll and consistently manages to at least pretend in public he isn’t some insufferably arrogant prat.
As an aside, is anybody else bewildered by how the women of the ‘Social Set’ seem to be nearly universally stricken with a quite tragically terrible dress sense while the men usually dress so nicely? Eh, maybe it’s because men’s clothing is easier, less choice to begin with and less change over the last century or two. I don’t know, it’s just been bugging me.
No, you’re not the only one. I assumed the women were conforming to some kind of frumpy upper class style that I don’t get.
I think it’s fair to assume all members of the BRF and their circle have been exposed. I’m sure they all managed to get tested too.