Fractured Fairy Tale

June 1969 Charles, 20, is featured in a TIME cover story just before his investiture as Prince of Wales.

June 1971 Charles meets 23-year-old Camilla Shand for the first time at a polo match in Windsor.

1972 The couple become close, but the relationship ends after Charles fails to propose and leaves for duty with the Royal Navy.

July 1973 Camilla marries cavalry officer Andrew Parker Bowles (with Charles, below at left), with whom she has had an on-off relationship.

Nov. 1977 Charles meets 16-year-old Lady Diana Spencer at a shoot on the Spencers’ Althorp estate. Charles has been dating Diana’s older sister Sarah.

Late 1970s Charles and Camilla are said to rekindle their relationship.

Sept. 1980 At Balmoral Castle in Scotland, tabloid journalists catch Charles with an unnamed girl who turns out to be Diana.

Feb. 24, 1981 Charles and Diana announce their engagement; Camilla is said to approve.

July 29, 1981 Charles and Diana marry in a lavish ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral that’s watched by 750 million people around the world.

1986 Rumors begin circulating that Charles and Camilla are once again lovers. Diana meets army major James Hewitt, with whom she begins a five-year affair the following year.

January 1989 Diana confronts Camilla at a dinner party and demands she end the affair with her husband.

June 1992 Andrew Morton’s biography, Diana: Her True Story, alleges that Camilla has been Charles’ long-term mistress and that Diana, suffering from bulimia and consumed by jealousy, attempted suicide several times.

Dec. 1992 Prime Minister John Major announces the royal couple are to separate.

Jan. 1993 An Australian magazine publishes extracts from a transcript of an intimate phone conversation between Charles and Camilla.

June 1994 Charles gives a TV interview in which he admits to having an affair, but only after the marriage had “irretrievably broken down.”

Jan. 1995 Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorce.

Nov. 1995 Diana gives a candid television interview in which, among the revelations, she confirms her affair with Hewitt and says of husband’s affair with Camilla, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

Aug. 28, 1996 Charles and Diana divorce.

Aug. 31, 1997 Diana and Dodi al Fayed die in a car crash in Paris. Camilla, vilified as a marriage wrecker, retreats from public view.

Jan. 28, 1999 Camilla and Charles are officially photographed together for the first time at London’s Ritz hotel.

June 2000 As a sign of acceptance, the Queen attends a party also attended by Camilla.

June 26, 2001 Charles and Camilla kiss in public for the first time.

June 2002 Camilla sits in the royal box at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebration.

Feb. 10, 2005 Charles’ office at Clarence House announces that the couple intend to marry on April 8.