Royal fans realise how different Queen Camilla looked in her youth in throwback snap

Queen Camilla is celebrating her 78th birthday today, and a throwback snap has left royal fans all saying the same thing. Fans will no doubt be rushing to wish Her Majesty a happy birthday, but it's a throwback snap that has got people talking.

A social media user took to X to share the photo, which they captioned: "A young Queen Camilla." Commenting, one person wrote: "Too adorable for words." Another chimed in: "I don't think I've ever seen childhood photos of her. She was adorable," while a third agreed: "Wow.... She was a cutie." Another admirer added: "Awww, she's cute."

Camilla was born on July 17, 1947, at King's College Hospital London. She was raised on a 5.7-acre estate in Sussex where her father - Major Bruce Shand, Vice Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex - took her fox hunting during their spare time together, according to Good Housekeeping.

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She first attended Drumbrell's School in Ditchling before continuing her education at the prestigious Queen's Gate School in South Kensington, where she earned the nickname 'Milla', according to author of Game of Crowns, Christopher Anderson.

At school, Camilla was described as 'boisterous' and, later, gained a reputation for being popular with boys.

Former Queen's Gate student Carolyn Benson branded the now-Queen "quite a flirt" and said she had a knack for being able to "talk to boys about things that interested them."

Camilla left Queen's Gate at the age of 16 and attended Mon Fertile School in Switzerland and the Institut Britannique in Paris before beginning her working life in London.

Camilla met her current husband, King Charles, at a polo match in 1970 through a mutual friend.

"He loved the fact that she smiled with her eyes as well as her mouth, and laughed at the same silly things as he did," royal biographer Penny Junor wrote.

"In short, he was very taken with her, and after that first meeting he began ringing her up."

However, their courtship was short-lived and Camilla instead went on to marry Andrew Parker Bowles, an officer in the Household Calvary, with whom she had previously had a relationship after meeting at a debutante party.

They wed in 1973 and remained together until 1995. Charles and Princess Diana, meanwhile, married in 1981.

Charles and Camilla maintained a friendship throughout the start of their respective relationships which quickly blossomed into an affair.

Camilla told the Daily Mail in 2017 that that period of her life "was horrid."

"It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn't want to put my worst enemy through it," she said of her late 20s and early 30s. "I couldn't have survived it without my family."

Charles and Diana divorced in 1996 - a year before the then-Princess of Wales' tragic death.

It wasn't until 2005, nearly 10 years later, that the current King and Queen tied the knot.