Speculation is growing that Camilla Parker Bowles, who recently met Prince William, and has been his father's close companion for 25 years, is now emerging as Prince Charles's consort.
Prince Charles's long-time lover, Ms Camilla Parker Bowles, went to his side after Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris last year, according to a report in the Mirror.
In what it said was an exclusive story, the Mirror said Ms Parker Bowles, whose affair with Prince Charles was blamed for breaking up his marriage, told a friend: "All I care about is Charles and the boys."
She was said to be "mortified, absolutely horrified by the tragedy", and drove to Prince Charles's country estate, High grove, five days after Princess Diana's funeral, defying friends' advice to stay away for six months, the report said.
The report came a day after it emerged that Ms Parker Bowles had recently met Prince William, fuelling speculation that Prince Charles's close companion of 25 years is now emerging from the shadows as his consort.
Opinion polls have consistently shown strong opposition to Prince Charles marrying Ms Parker Bowles and any suggestion that she might one day become Queen Camilla. But the tide may be turning.
After Thursday's news one of Britain's leading bookmakers announced it had cut the odds on Prince Charles and Ms Parker Bowles marrying by the end of the year from 10/1 to 5/1.
Yesterday, the top-selling tabloid, the Sun, challenged Prince Charles on its front page with the message: "Show us you love her."
The Sun said Prince Charles and Ms Parker Bowles were living together "almost as man and wife", at his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire.
British newspapers yesterday debated whether what was billed as the first get-together between Ms Parker Bowles and Prince William was just that - or part of a clever royal strategy to win her public acceptance.
As the Sun defended its "scoop" of a day earlier about Ms Parker Bowles and how she had "trembled like a leaf" when she met Prince William, other newspapers saw manipulative palace tactics at work.
"Camilla and William - a cunning leak or just careless talk?" asked the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper asked whether a newly named royal "spin doctor" had gone to work already, leaking the story to soften up public hostility to Ms Parker Bowles.
The Express said it was not the first meeting between Prince William (16) and Ms Parker Bowles, reporting they were at the same fox hunt last December.
Prince William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, "were introduced to their father's mistress as young children while Princess Diana was still alive," the Express said, quoting senior palace aides.
Princess Diana nicknamed Ms Parker Bowles "the rottweiler" and told a BBC interviewer that there had been three people in her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles.
The Express noted that the Camilla headlines had helped divert attention from a row over Labour government lobbying and wondered if this was just a coincidence, because Ms Parker Bowles was a friend of one of the Prime Minister's spin doctors, Mr Peter Mandelson.