How unexpected?

It has always been said that Camilla Parker Bowles was the third person in Charles and Diana's marriage. Charles and Camilla's affair began in 1986, ten years before he officially became divorced from Princess Diana. According to Netflix documentary "The Royal House of Windsor" Charles often turned to his grandmother, the Queen Mother, for advice during this time. Royal writer Piers Brendon explained in the documentary: “The Queen Mother is relatively broad-minded." “She didn’t mind Prince Charles having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, provided that this did not become a scandal.” He added that the Queen Mother "was worried that a scandal like this could be blown up into something that could wreck the monarchy". However, despite her misgivings, she stood by her grandson. In footage from the documentary, the narrator says: “The Queen Mother allowed the couple [Charles and Camilla] to use her Scottish home, Birkhall, as a bolthole.” It wasn't the Queen Mother's first experience of scandal within the family. She had seen a similar when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband. Trust us, it was a scandal at the time. So mush so, Edward abdicated from the throne, and was excommunicated by his family.