Late Queen turned Camilla's children into 'terrified puppies'

Queen Camilla's son Tom Parker Bowles has revealed that when he met the late Queen Elizabeth he and his sister Laura were swiftly turned into 'terrified puppies' by the former monarch

Queen Camilla has two children from her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles - Tom and Laura.

They both attended the coronation last year and watched as their mother was crowned alongside their stepfather King Charles, and the historic day saw Camilla's family take pride of place, with Tom's son Freddy and Laura's sons Gus and Louis all acting as pages of honour for their grandmother during the poignant ceremony.

Tom Parker Bowles - a food writer - has recently released a new book called Cooking With the Crown, and in a sit-down interview to promote the recipe book, he revealed what happened when he and his sister met the late Queen Elizabeth and they swiftly turned into "terrified puppies" in front of the former monarch.

Despite the fact that Camilla and King Charles have been together for decades, Tom revealed that he had only ever met the late monarch on two occasions - and both times he was pretty intimidated. Speaking to The Independent he explained, that the very first time he met the late Queen was "When I was eight, I was so scared that I curtsied rather than bowed."

However, it would be many years before he crossed paths with the late Queen again - when Camilla and Charles tied the knot in a civil ceremony in Windsor in 2005. The late Queen didn't actually attend the wedding ceremony itself, with reports at the time claiming this was due to the fact that the Anglican church discourages divorce, and she took her role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England seriously. "The civil nature of the service is the issue. She did not feel it was appropriate for her to attend," an aide said at the time.

However, she did attend a blessing in St. George's Chapel afterward and gave a moving speech in support of the marriage at a reception she hosted at Windsor Castle later that day and it was here when Tom saw the late Queen again. "The second time was [at] my mother’s wedding in Windsor and my sister and I had snuck out for a fag or something and got lost and suddenly heard this voice saying, 'Are you okay?'" Tom explained. "Obviously she was magnetic and lovely and she was the Queen, the most famous person in the world. We just followed like two rather terrified but awestruck puppies as she went down the hall with the dogs," he added.

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