Camilla Parker Bowles Was Housebound for a Year After Revealing Prince Charles Affair: “It Was Horrid”

We didn’t expect the Duchess to be so honest…

In her most revealing interview yet, the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, detailed the ins and out of her relationship with Prince Charles, which included being housebound for a year out of fear of public hostility after the two reignited their long-rumored relationship in the late 90s.

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“I couldn’t go really go anywhere,” she told the Mail on Sunday, going on to say that she used this time to spend time with her children from her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles, Tom and Laura, as well as read and learn to paint.

“It was horrid. It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through it,” says the Duchess, who married into the royal family in 2005.

Charles and Camilla.

The almost-70-year-old — who will celebrate this momentous birthday in July — also explained that being a part of the royal family, and adhering to an ever-overflowing schedule, can certainly take its toll.

“Sometimes you get up in the morning and think you can’t do it, and you just have to,” she continued. “The minute you stop it’s like a balloon, you run out of puff — you sort of collapse in a heap. I think you live on adrenaline.”

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Considering this senior royal attends more than 200 engagements as part of her duties — as reported by the Daily Mail — we can begin to see what she means.

“If you are a positive person, you can do so much more,” she elaborated, adding that while she doesn’t believe she’s tough, but rather of strong character, and believes in leaning on laughter to push through testing times.

“You’ve got to laugh through most things,” she said. “There are situations where it’s very difficult not to lose it completely, especially if something goes terribly wrong and everybody sits there for a split second.”

“You do have to swallow and pinch yourself very hard to not laugh,” she continued. “People are either glass-half-empty or glass-half-full. I always think hopefully. You just have to get on with it. Being British!”

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This interview comes just days after Princess Diana‘s biographer Andrew Morton opened up about a very terse encounter between Camilla and the late royal over Charles in the author’s book Diana: Her True Story.

As previously reported by Now To Love, despite feeling “terrified,” Di calmly proceeded to confront the other woman in her marriage: “Camilla, I would just like you to know that I know exactly what is going on between you and Charles, I wasn’t born yesterday.”

Charles and Camilla. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

“Deathly calm and I said to Camilla: ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way, I obviously am in the way and it must be hell for both of you but I do know what is going on,'” the mother-of-two reportedly said at the time.

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In taped recordings about the exchange, Diana claims Camilla replied to her: “You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world [to] fall in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?” To which she replied, “I want my husband.”

Looking back on the events, Diana said it was “one of the bravest moments” of her marriage.

This story originally appeared on NowToLove.com.