What was the Tampongate Scandal? What did Charles say to Camilla in phone call, was he still married to Diana

The Tampongate Scandal was one of the most scandalous moments to hit the Royal Family in the 1990s. The intimate phone call between then Prince Charles and Camillia Parker Bowles became a tabloid sensation, with the transcript of the pair’s conversation being widely shared.

Netflix’s series The Crown has confirmed that it will cover the scandal in season 5 which is set to drop next week. Actor Dominic West who plays Charles has described the incident as “two middle-aged lovers being sweet to each other”. Whilst the royal drama is bringing the scandal to light for a new generation.

So, what is Tampongate and what exactly did Charles say to Camilla? Here’s everything you need to know.

What was the Tampongate Scandal?

The Tampongate Scandal was a phone call between then Prince Charles and Camilla. The call originally occurred in 1989, with the transcript being released by the press in 1993 shortly after Charles and Princess Diana separated.

The six-minute transcript included intimate details of the couple’s affair and made for an embarrassing read with Charles discussing turning into a tampon. It became an instant scandal and was widely reported in the press.

What did Charles say to Camilla?

During the six-minute phone call the pair discussed being intimate with each other and desiring each other’s company, with Charles declaring he needed Camilla “several times a week”. It was also during this conversation that Charles made the infamous tampon comment. Reported by Cosmopolitan, a summary of the couple’s conversation can be read below.

Charles: Oh stop! I want to feel my way along you, all over you and up and down you and in and out . . .

Camilla: Oh!

Charles: Particularly in and out.

Camilla: Oh, that’s just what I need at the moment.

Charles: Is it?

Charles: What about me? The trouble is I need you several times a week.

Camilla: Mmmm, so do I. I need you all the week. All the time.

Charles: Oh, God. I’ll just live inside your trousers or something. It would be much easier!

Camilla: (Laughing) What are you going to turn into, a pair of knickers? (Both laugh). Oh, you’re going to come back as a pair of knickers.

Charles: Or, God forbid, a Tampax. Just my luck! (Laughs)

Camilla: You are a complete idiot! (Laughs) Oh, what a wonderful idea.

Charles: My luck to be chucked down the lavatory and go on and on forever swirling round on the top, never going down.

Camilla: (Laughing) Oh, Darling!

Charles: Until the next one comes through.

Camilla: Oh, perhaps you could come back as a box.

Charles: What sort of box?

Camilla: A box of Tampax, so you could just keep going.

Charles: That’s true.

Camilla: Repeating yourself...(Laughing) Oh, darling I just want you now.

Charles: Do you?

Camilla: Mmmmm

Charles: So do I!

Camilla: Desperately, desperately.

Was he still married to Diana at the time?

The phone call took place in 1989 at a time when both Charles and Camilla were married. Prince Charles was married to Princess Diana and Camilla was married to Andrew Parker Bowles.

The transcript of the phone call was released to the press three months after Charles and Princess Diana separated in 1993. The couple officially divorced on 28 August 1996 due to Charles’ infidelity. During Princess Diana’s BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 she famously said, “there were three of us in this marriage.”

Will it be featured in The Crown?

The infamous phone call will be featured in season 5 of Netflix’s The Crown. Speaking to the Guardian, actor Dominic West who plays Prince Charles described the incident as “two middle-aged lovers being sweet to each other”.

West said: “My memory of it is that it was sort of filthy and dirty and really embarrassing, but actually, in the playing of it, it was much more like two middle-aged lovers being sweet to each other.”

Adding: “If any one of us had our intimate phone conversations reproduced verbatim in every newspaper in the world, imagine what that’s like. Imagine how awful that is. It just strikes you as being a horrible breach of privacy that no one should have to suffer.”