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Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles Attend Garden Party

Aired July 02, 2002 - 10:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: She is not a member of the British royal family, but Camilla Parker Bowles is assuming a higher profile than ever. She is traveling right now with Prince Charles in Scotland in what is considered the most significant royal role to date. ITN Royal Correspondent Tom Bradby has the scoop.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM BRADBY, ITN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, yes, well, you join me here outside Holyrood Palace, and as you can probably see, it being Britain in the summer, it's raining, as usually happens at garden parties, and what you see behind me here is people queuing to get in. Some people in lounge suits, some people in morning dress. You can vary it according to what you want, really, for a garden party.

But I think the whole point about today is that there's a huge degree of curiosity about the fact that not only is Prince Charles going to be here hosting this, but that Camilla Parker Bowles is going to be by his side. Now, palace officials are at pains to stress that this isn't the two of them co-hosting a garden party, but nevertheless, although we have seen them in public, over -- in various occasions over the last 12 months or so, this is the first time they've actually appeared at a public event hosted by him together. You could say that he's -- she is his partner or companion, assisting him in a public event, and we haven't seen that before.

Now, obviously, I think there is just a huge degree of curiosity still in Camilla Parker Bowles, what she is really like. She was, as I'm sure everyone will know, her name kind of reverberated through British public life for a decade or more for all the obvious reasons. She had an affair with Prince Charles, then he got married, then at some point during his marriage, the affair resumed, and, of course, she was vilified by many people. Over the last 12 months or so, they have managed to claw that situation back, and she is coexisting by his side. They are living together. They are increasingly kind of bringing her out alongside him.

And obviously, the game plan is to try and allow them to just live life in public together. Now the British public has accepted everything that has happened so far, but what we see in opinion polls is there is a degree of nervousness, and people are a bit resistant to taking that role further. So, that's the principal reason today is interesting. The other point is that, of course, Prince William is going to be here, and we've never seen the three of them together at a public event, effectively kind of entertaining people, or meeting people together. So obviously, the interest -- there is going to be a great deal of interest in the interaction between them, and, of course, Prince William in his own right, particularly over the last 12 months, every time -- public duty he does, you get this kind of hysteria. So, all in all, it is going to be a day for curious people to take a careful eye on what happenings.

This is Tom Bradby for CNN at Holyrood Palace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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