Much of the Parker-Bowles charisma continues today in the figure of Ayesha Shand, Queen Camilla's favorite niece who has managed to overcome her particular family tragedy.
If anyone still doesn't see clearly how Carlos III was able to fall in love with Camilla Parker-Bowles at 22 without such a feeling faltering for decades, they can take a look at the photos on the Instagram profile of Ayesha Shand (28 years old), the favorite niece of the current queen. Not only is she, physically, an enhanced clone of her real aunt, but she possesses the same explosive mix of intellectuality, eccentricity, a slight note of imperial decadence, and a great sense of humor. And a family tragedy, unfortunately.
The great tragedy in the life of Camilla Parker-Bowles has been told a thousand times: we will never know why Charles of England did not marry her when they began their romance in their twenties in the 1970s. Countless misfortunes originated from that separation, which led to two necessarily unsatisfactory marriages. Ayesha Shand, Camilla's favorite niece, is grieving another kind of loss: the passing of her father.
We have become familiar with the figure of Annabel Elliot, the inseparable sister of Queen Camilla who accompanied her so closely at her coronation. They both had another brother, Mark Shand, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 62. He was the most charismatic of a family full of charisma: adventurer, writer, and environmental conservation activist, he led his own foundation for the protection of elephants, a cause now championed by his daughter, Ayesha.
Ayesha Shand has great complicity with Camilla
Ayesha not only carries on her father's legacy, but she became the sole heir to her fortune, estimated at around £900,000. Against all odds, she will make no mention of the woman she had an on-and-off relationship with since her divorce from Ayesha's mother, Ruth Powys. She accompanied him in the hospital, during the 24 hours that she survived a fall after a foolish slip leaving the Rose Bar of the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York.
Ayesha Shand's childhood was anything but conventional: her father continually embarked on conservation and exploration trips and her mother, Clio Goldsmith, niece of billionaire Sir James Goldsmith, had made a name for herself as an actress and film 'femme fatale'. French from the 80s. Her first marriage dates from those crazy years, with one of the heirs of the Pirelly empire, with whom she had her eldest daughter, Talitha.
In 1990, Clio met the seducer Mark Shand, an adventurer who had already seduced Bianca Jagger, Lee Radziwill, Jackie Onassis's sister, and Caroline Kennedy, her daughter. Clio and Mark had a lot in common: her father, Terry Goldsmith, was a renowned environmentalist. Despite everything, the marriage only lasted a decade, but the breakup was amicable and the relationship continued throughout the years. Ayesha was born in Rome, where she lived her entire childhood with her mother and sister.
Today, Ayesha Shand works as Associate Director at the same art gallery run by Princess Eugenie of York in Mayfair: Hauser & Wirth. However, his biography reveals his inclination for social work: not only does he continue his father's legacy in protecting elephants, but he also launched different initiatives to accompany the elderly or raise awareness about the stigmatization of mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder.
"Having grown very close to someone who suffered from this disease, I know how much it can isolate, confuse and embarrass those who suffer from it," she wrote on her Instagram account. "The only way to remove taboos from it is to talk about it openly and help people understand how it works." Ayesha Shan was obviously referring to her father, Mark, or her mother, Clio, but she would not clarify which of her parents was bipolar or how it affected her childhood.
With a degree in Art History, Aysha ('hope', in Arabic) is also an ambassador for Sanitation First, an association whose objective is the empowerment of women and gender equality, through the improvement of supply conditions. of drinking water and sanitation in developing countries. She has been dating the Neapolitan Luigi Ambrosi 2021: an entrepreneur in the milk business in the United States.
Her charismatic personality, very similar to that of Queen Camilla, together with her priceless network of contacts in the British aristocracy has made her an exquisite hostess of charity events. Not only is she in charge of special appointments at the art gallery where she works, but also at the family foundation, for which every year she organizes one of the most popular parties on the social calendar: The Animal Ball, which is never missing the Delevingnes or the Spencer-Churchills.
Ayesha Shand has wanted to acknowledge in her latest interviews how Queen Camilla, her aunt, has helped her cope with the death of her father. "She has been there the whole time and in an incredible way," she has declared. In addition, Camilla and King Carlos III became honorary presidents of the Mark Shand Elephant Relief Foundation, to support the continuation of his legacy.
