Camilla's press ban

Oct 18, 2006, 15:45 GMT

Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall's son says his family stopped reading newspapers after "Camillagate".

Tom Parker Bowles, Camilla's eldest child, was a pupil at Eton College when a tape recording of an intimate conversation between his mother and Britain's Prince Charles was leaked to the press in 1992.

Tom, 31, told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper: "People say we were mercilessly bullied at school. But friends and family were everything to me. At home there wasn't a newspaper. By the time you are in your final year at Eton no little b****r is going to talk and if they do, friends would jump in. That gives you a security that runs deeper than anything."

The author, who has just released a new book entitled 'The Year of Eating Dangerously', refers to Prince Charles, who is also his godfather, as Sir.

Tom said: "I felt for my mother and for Sir. It was awful, and totally immoral.

"There must have been pressure on my mother to give an interview, but I love it now that she never has and never will. If she can take it, we certainly can."

Camilla and Prince Charles - who had an affair during the prince's marriage to Princess Diana - were married in April last year.

Tom, who has been the subject of headlines himself in the past for dalliances with cannabis and cocaine, has also spoken about his relationship to his new step-brothers Princes William and Harry.

He said: I don't think I became an elder brother to them at all. They are both incredibly nice, charming, well-mannered men and they have enough on their plate without me banging on about them."

(C) BANG Media International