Prince Charles didn't have a romantic nickname for his second wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, when they first started dating in the '70s. They did, however, call each other Fred and Gladys, especially when they wrote each other love letters.
According to Town & Country magazine, Prince Charles and Camilla did not use the pet names, Fred and Gladys, to hide their adulterous relationship. Long before Princess Diana entered the picture, Prince Charles called his then-girlfriend Camilla, Gladys, while she called him Fred based on the characters of the radio program The Goon Show.
Before they got married in 2005, Slate reported that Charles loved the radio program and liked Fred because he "disappeared from right under his mother's nose." This was seemingly in reference to the Princes of Wales' complicated relationship with Queen Elizabeth.
However, several years before their second shot at a life together, Prince Charles had to give up his relationship with the love of his life. Senior members of the royal family didn't think Camilla was suitable for the future King of England so they wanted him to find a woman without any past who could be his wife.
Soon after, the Prince of Wales met 19-year-old Diana, the daughter of an earl and the granddaughter of one of the Queen's Lady-in-Waiting. Camilla, on the other hand, married Andrew Parker Bowles, with whom she had two kids.
But it was because of the pet names Fred and Gladys that Diana apparently confirmed her suspicions that her husband was having an affair with his ex-girlfriend. According to a few biographers, weeks leading up to their engagement, the Princess of Wales saw a drawing of a bracelet with the initials F & G that her future husband planned to gift Camilla.
However, some royal biographers have debated over this nickname discovery for years. According to Howard Hodgson, who wrote the book Charles: The Man Who Will Be King, this Fred and Gladys fiasco is but a product of Princess Diana's jealously. She apparently claimed that Charles sent flowers to Camilla and saw the card labeled with their pet names.
But, in the biography, Diana: Her True Story, the Princess of Wales told author Andrew Morton that she did find a gold chain bracelet with an enamel disc with intertwined letters F and G. The Prince of Wales allegedly told her that it was a gift to someone else, whom he refers as his "girl Friday" for all the help in his office over the years.
Eventually, however, the Wales' marriage did break down and Prince Charles admitted to the adultery. Princess Diana also detailed what went wrong in their marriage, which pushed the Queen to tell the couple to get a divorce.
