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Luke Parker Bowles is making a royal fuss.
The nephew of Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles revealed Wednesday that he was bullied for his last name while appearing on a segment of the “Today” show with Jenna Bush Hager.
Parker Bowles said that growing up with that name was incredibly difficult especially as worldwide attention was focused on the relationship between the now-king and queen consort.
“I read that when you were younger, you were actually sometimes bullied,” Hager said to him.
“It was a rough time. It was not a great time to be a Parker Bowles, but it hasn’t scarred me,” he responded. “All of us — my cousins, my brother — we’ve always been involved in charity. It’s much more important to be doing charitable things, not to be ‘holier than thou,’ just because it gives you a focus.”
Parker Bowles relocated from the UK to the US in 2005 after meeting his wife Daniela. The happy couple has three children and currently lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
The New Jersey resident — who is related to the queen consort through her first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles — elaborated in a New York Times piece about how he was automatically linked to anything negative that came out about the queen consort.
“I learned to do charity at a very young age. It was instilled in me by my parents and grandparents because they didn’t want me to be part of the chaos of the early days of my aunt and Prince Charles’s relationship,” said Parker Bowles.
“When I was at boarding school, I remember getting bullied and even death threats because people put together that Diana had died because of Camilla, and therefore I had killed Diana by association.”
“It was not a happy time, and I wanted to deflect that so I got involved in charities,” Parker Bowles continued. “I remember swimming three hours nonstop (which is bonkers) for charity. I loved it and I loved focusing on what I could do for other people, instead of focusing on getting bullied.”
Now, he is the director of the Queen Elizabeth II September 11 Garden in New York City and runs CinemaLab, which helps refurbish and revive small town movie theaters.
He has also helped chair BAFTA New York and has worked on hit films such as “Love, Actually,” “Bridget Jones’ Diary: The Edge of Reason” and “About a Boy.”
“I do like being an ambassador for her and His Majesty in New York,” said Parker Bowles.
“I am the Parker Bowles who is here.”
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