The Royal Family is no stranger to scandal and now there is a new one. This time, it involves a man claiming to be the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall's love child.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 30, 2021. It has since been updated.
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," said Princess Diana in an explosive interview with BBC's Martin Bashir in 1995.
The Prince and Princess of Wales' tumultuous marriage was well-known, especially when it came to Camilla Parker-Bowles, who Prince Charles went on to marry eventually. However, an Australian man named Simon Charles Dorante-Day has come forward with the claim that he is the love child of Prince Charles and Camilla— a fact that Princess Diana supposedly knew about, according to The Daily Mail.
The 55-year-old British-born man currently lives in Queensland, Australia, but claims that it was his adoptive grandmother who revealed in 1998 that the Duchess of Cornwall was his biological mother. After learning of this shocking news, he did his "research" and is convinced that he has proof that his claims are accurate. The proof the father-of-nine speaks of is a picture of his son who he claims looks like a carbon copy of a young Queen Elizabeth II. “I think the evidence speaks for itself, I mean it’s the face that gives it away,” he said during an interview on Sunrise, as quoted by Perth Now.
In the interview, Simon explained his theory. The photo of his son, Liam, was taken during a fishing trip and had been posted on social media. It was there that a woman changed his image to monochrome and rotated it before placing it next to a picture of the Queen. “I see (the resemblance) every day, every day when I get up in the morning when the kids speak to me, it’s the first thing I see when the kids turn around is that (royal likelness), so it is always in my face,” he said. “People need to come forward and come clean. People seem to think I’m getting a big name and money out of this: I’m not getting anything out of this, this is costing me to do this I’m forced to do this because we are tired of moving around Australia hiding this secret that’s not our secret."
He also believes that his own "Windsor-like cheekbones and teeth" and "Camilla-style hair" are more evidence of his connection to the royal family. But it seems Simon isn't in it for the title or the money, though he has set up a business titled "Royal Riffs" wherein he sells handmade guitars "with that royal finish" and is "simply a man looking for my biological parents."
In fact, he also wrote to his "parents" in 2012, stating that he would like a DNA test to validate his family connections. He mentioned that he was adopted when he was eight months old in 1965, a year when the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall were 17- and 18 years old, respectively.
He stated that his adoptive grandmother also told him that Camilla had kept him until he was given up for adoption. "She didn't just hint at it, she told me outright," Simon said in an interview, as per The Daily Mail. He also claimed that in the months before he was born, the Duchess of Cornwall was absent from the social scene for at least around nine months, at the same time that Prince Charles was in Australia. He shared recollections of being shuffled around houses in the Portsmouth area, where he would spend time with a woman he believed was Camilla. And outside those houses were his adoptive parents and royal protection officers.
During an interview with New Idea in February 2019, Simon stated that he believed the Princess of Wales was aware of his birth and was ready to "go public" with the information before her untimely demise in 1997. He said, "At the time, there were all sorts of rumors flying around about the Royal Family, and my existence was one of them. I think Diana was at a point where she was finding out answers about her life, how she was wronged, and she was going to go public with it."
He also claimed that his birth certificate is "complete rubbish," stating that the hospital mentioned didn't deliver even one baby during the decade that he was born. Additionally, the names written in the place of his birth parents are "fictitious" and that his adoption papers have his adoptive mother's handwriting. Despite claiming to have all this evidence, Simon mentioned that he requires more proof before he can take it to court. “There’s influence behind the scenes all the time and it is just unfair that I constantly have to fight this when really, they know the truth. I’m heading back to court I have got the original evidence and I’m slowly collecting more. The longer this runs the more they are going to get egg on their face, not me," he said in the Sunrise interview.
Despite his claims though, the royal family has not made any statement or comment on it. Additionally, none of these claims have been confirmed officially.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocw_OXfZckU
https://www.newidea.com.au/camillas-secret-son-bombshell-picture-proof
Cover image source: Getty Images | Photo by Hugo Burnand/Pool
