Princess Diana’s Shady Nickname for Camilla Was Unexpectedly Ruthless

Princess Diana was known for her grace and charm, but when it came to Camilla Parker Bowles, the woman she famously referred to as ‘the third person in her marriage,’ Diana didn’t hold back. Among the nicknames she reportedly had for Camilla, ‘The Rottweiler’ stands out as the most cutting. This was no ordinary insult; it was a reflection of the agony and betrayal Diana felt as her marriage to Prince Charles was on the verge of breaking, with Bowles at the center of it all. The nickname ‘Rottweiler’ was far from a casual jab. It symbolized Diana’s views of Bowles as an unyielding presence in her life, someone who, in her eyes, had destroyed her marriage and happiness, as reported by The List.

In a 1995 interview, she said, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” Diana wasn’t shy about expressing her disdain for Bowles, famously confronting her at a party and directly accusing her of wrecking her marriage. She reportedly said, “I know what’s going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that. She said to me: ‘You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world fall in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?’ So I said, ‘I want my husband.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way...and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot.’”

By the time of Diana’s tragic death in 1997, Bowles had become one of the most reviled figures in Britain. The public, who adored Diana, largely blamed Bowles for the Princess’s unhappiness and the collapse of her marriage to Charles. The media portrayed Bowles in the harshest of lights, using every derogatory term imaginable to describe her. Yet, in a remarkable twist of fate, Bowles went from being the ‘most hated woman in Britain’ to becoming Queen Consort,  a title officially bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II.

As per Today, the infamous 1993 "Camillagate" scandal, where private conversations between Charles and Bowles were leaked. In the leaked conversation, Charles was heard saying, "I’ll just live inside your trousers or something. It would be much easier.” To which Bowles responds, "What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers?... Oh, you’re going to come back as a pair of knickers…You are a complete idiot! (Laughs) Oh, what a wonderful idea."

Charles’s confession of adultery in a 1994 interview with Jonathan Dimbleby did little to help their cause, and Diana’s subsequent interview with Martin Bashir, where she questioned Charles’s fitness to be king, only added to the royal drama. She said, “Being Prince of Wales produces more freedom now, and being King would be a little bit more suffocating. And because I know the character I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don’t know whether he could adapt to that”.