The Crown Has Found Its Camilla Parker Bowles

The Crown has found its Camilla Parker Bowles (née Camilla Shand, as she will be billed this season). Netflix made the reveal on Tuesday, announcing that actress Emerald Fennell will portray the English aristocrat who had a years-long affair with Prince Charles while he was married to Princess Diana. The pair eventually married in 2005, years after the princesss tragic 1997 death.

Fennell released a celebratory statement about the casting, saying shes “absolutely over the moon, and completely terrified, to be joining so many hugely talented people on The Crown. I absolutely love Camilla, and am very grateful that my teenage years have well prepared me for playing a chain-smoking serial snogger with a pudding-bowl haircut.”

Fennell has previously starred in the British period-drama series Call the Midwife, and has landed parts in films like The Danish Girl and Albert Nobbs. Shes also a writer who, according to Variety, will head up Season 2 of the hit BBC America series Killing Eve, taking over the job from Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Shell be joining a cast that thus far includes Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II, Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret, Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, and Ben Daniels as Lord Snowdon. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Josh OConnor (Florence Foster Jenkins) as Prince Charles, Marion Bailey (Allied) as the Queen Mother, and Erin Doherty as Princess Anne.

The third season will pick up where Season 2 left off, following the royal family through the rest of the 1960s and forward into the 1970s. At the time, Camilla was in her late teens going into her early twenties. She was born into a high-society family that occasionally mingled with the British royals. It was around the mid-1960s that she began dating British officer Andrew Parker Bowles; their relationship fell apart in the early 1970s, when he decided to date Princess Anne. Camilla then began dating Prince Charles. Both relationships eventually broke off, and Camilla and Andrew married in 1973. They later asked Charles to be the godfather to their first child, Tom.

Though its only going into the mid-1970s, Season 3 of The Crown might also hint at whats to come—namely, Charles and Camillas years-long affair, which eventually drove a wedge between Charles and Diana.

October 23, 2018

At a formal dinner in Fiji, wearing a gown by Safiyaa.Photo: By Samir Hussein/WireImage.

October 23, 2018

Arriving in Fiji in a dress by Zimmermann and fascinator by Stephen Jones.Photo: By Andrew Parsons/Getty Images.

October 22, 2018

Meghan wears a light dress with thigh slit from Reformation and Karen Walker sunglasses to Fraser Island.Photo: From REX/Shutterstock.

October 21, 2018

Meghan wears a white striped Brea blazer to an Invictus Games reception hosted by the Prime Minister of Australia at The Pavilion Restaurant.Photo: From REX/Shutterstock.

October 16, 2018

For the couples first appearance of the trip, Meghan paired a white dress by Australian designer Karen Gee—its called “Blessed”, which feels pretty pointed toward her recent pregnancy news—with a beige trench coat.Photo: By Karwai Tang/WireImage.

October 16, 2018

Meghan changed for an evening appearance into an olive green dress by Brandon Maxwell.Photo: By Samir Hussein/WireImage.

October 16, 2018

Meghan wore a pair of butterfly earrings that once belonged to Princess Diana for both appearances on Monday.Photo: Left, by Samir Hussein/WireImage; Right by Georges De Keerle/Getty Images.PreviousNext