Prince Charles threw a lavish champagne supper Friday to celebrate the 50th birthday of Camilla Parker Bowles - leaving the nation wondering if he might soon be celebrating marriage to the love of his life.
Eighty guests - including Parker Bowles' ex-husband Andrew and his second wife - gathered at Highgrove, Charles' country estate in southwest England, for canapes followed by a five-course meal and birthday cake, then dancing.No other royals were invited, news reports said. Not surprisingly, Charles' ex-wife Diana, who has blamed Parker Bowles for destroying the royal marriage, was also left off the guest list.
"For one evening, at least, Camilla will be queen of her own court," gushed the royalist Express tabloid.
Buckingham Palace said Charles' bash was private, but some media royal watchers described it as Charles' most public statement yet about the woman he has doted on for more than two decades.
They believe the widely publicized event - newspapers have run aerial photos of the party tent in Charles' garden - is the prince's way of gently easing Camilla into the spotlight.
"It is now plain as day that (Mrs. Parker Bowles) and the Prince of Wales want to get married and are running a massive public relations operation to try to influence opinion in her favor," said an editorial in the Independent.
Others, however, believe the 48-year-old heir to the throne is now a confirmed bachelor after the disaster of his marriage to Diana.
Whatever they decide, Charles and Parker Bowles are very much a couple.
On Thursday, Camilla's birthday, the Mirror tabloid published a survey showing 67 percent of Britons think the couple should marry.