Prince Harry and Prince William‘s brotherhood must be one of the strongest in the whole world given what they were forced to endure at such a young age.
No child should lose their mother the way William and Harry did – she was ripped away from her boys when they were just 15 and 12 respectively.
The heartbreaking pictures of them walking behind Diana’s casket in the funeral procession is a sight I’ll never forget.
But despite the terrible tragedy, the boys have now grown up to be strong, independent men who continue to further their mom’s legacy in a very impressive way.
Princess Diana loved her boys above all else – but that didn’t stop her from longing for a daughter. Now, that never happened, but Harry and William did eventually get a sister – a sister that many never heard of…
The Royal Family is virtually always in the spotlight. Recently, there’s been huge focus on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s decision to officially step down from royal duties and stop using their titles.
With that in mind, there is one member of the royal family who has managed to stay away from the cameras and tabloids: William and Harry’s unknown step-sister, Laura Lopes. Some claim that she’s the “secret” sister of the brothers. At the very least she can be considered a low-key step-sister.
Laura Lopes is the stepdaughter of Prince Charles and the biological daughter of Charles’s second wife, Camilla Parker Bowles.
Born in 1978 in Swindon, England, her biological father is the retired British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles – the ex-husband of Camilla, now Duchess of Cornwall.
Camilla and Andrew married in 1973 and had two children together, Tom and Laura. The couple divorced in 1995, just one year prior to Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s infamous divorce.
After Diana’s tragic death, it wasn’t long before Charles and Camilla moved in together.
When the Prince of Wales and Camilla got married in 2005, Laura came along and the families became even more closely linked.
By all accounts, Laura Lopes had a privileged upbringing. Unsurprising, really, given that she was born into a family that had age-old connections to the royal family.
Laura’s great-great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was a mistress to Charles’s great-great-grandfather, King Edward VII, according to BBC News.
Prince Charles was also named godfather to Laura’s brother Tom, many years before Charles and Camilla became a couple. In other words, the royal family and the Parker Bowles family have been good friends for a long time and moved in the same, aristocratic circles.As a young girl, Laura grew up in Bolehyde Manor in Allington. She later moved to the famous Middlewick House in Corsham (today, it’s the home of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason).
Because her father was a Catholic, both Laura and her brother Tom were raised as Roman Catholics. Laura got her education at the Catholic girls’ boarding school in Dorset and later attended Oxford Brookes University, where she studied History of Art and Marketing.
When Laura was 17, her parents divorced. It was speculated that her father had many extramarital affairs during the marriage – some of them with Camilla’s close friends, according to the author Penny Junor.
At the same time, the romance between Camilla and Prince Charles was perhaps the world’s worst kept secret. Speculations had been rife for a good many years before they got married in 2005. In fact, Prince Charles was deeply in love with Camilla even before she married her first husband in July 1973, if the rumours are to be believed.
According to royal reporter Katie Nicholl, author of the book “William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls”, Camilla’s children had a hard time when the tabloids wrote about the romance.According to Nicholl, Laura was “teased mercilessly” by kids at school for her mom’s relationship with the Prince of Wales. And it seems like Laura Lopes didn’t get along with her royal step-father in the beginning.
“When Charles telephoned Camilla at the family home in Wiltshire, Laura would pick up an extension and shout down the receiver, ‘Why don’t you stop calling Mummy and leave our family alone,’” Nicholl wrote in her book.
Laura is also said to have quarreled with her step-brother, Prince William. As with many children who find themselves involuntarily pushed together, friction arose.
“William and Laura used to have terrible fights over who was to blame for their broken homes,” Nicholl wrote.“William would blame Camilla for all the hurt she had caused his mother, which would send Laura into a rage. Laura was not having any of it. She would take a hard line and fire back at William, ‘Your father has ruined my life.’”
Thankfully, the fights seem to be over these days – both William and Harry are now said to have a good relationship with their step-sister.