On Saturday Camilla will become the Queen. It’s the side-chick coronation.

You’ve got to hand it to Camilla Parker Bowles. She really played that long game.

This weekend, she will stand by the man who once said he’d quite like to be a ‘tampon so he could live inside her’ as he is sworn in as the King of England.

It’s the stuff of rom-com dreams.

Or at least reality TV dreams.

The ‘side chick’ is finally getting everything she ever wanted, and it only took her 30-plus years, and unwavering public scrutiny throughout that entire time, to get it.

Listen to Mamamia's daily news podcast, The Quicky to stay up-to-date on the coronation. Post continues after podcast.

Welcome to the ‘side chick coronation’, where people either fall into one of two camps.

The first camp firmly believes Camilla, the plotting, scheming ‘side chick’ is finally getting everything she ever wanted. She’s going to be the Queen of England, her family will officially become royals, and no one can ever question her place in the royal family ever again. You know, just like she’s been plotting all of these years since Charles first started whispering sweet nothings about tampons, and where’d he like to put those tampons, down the phone line.

Like a certain rapper once said, "I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger, but she ain’t messing with no broke baby boomer monarchs."

The second camp believes this is a triumph of true love. That these two crazy kids made it, despite all the odds stacked up against them (including the mother of all disapproving mother-in-laws), and this is something worth celebrating.

Like many parts of the royal family, Charles and Camilla’s affair and eventual union was hidden in plain sight, rarely mentioned and never celebrated, but something the royal family chose to 'accept'.

At first it was scandalous, the kind of light, dirty gossip that filled the pages of tabloid magazines and became fodder for easy jokes at dinner parties.

Later, it became more widely accepted that Charles, despite all the advice he would have received on the contrary, risked everything for a chance at real love. Well, as real as love can be when you still call the Queen of England ‘mummy’ and obey her every command.

Against their wishes, the royal family became a blended family. And while the world did not stop spinning, the questions lingering over Camilla’s motivations never really went away.

Even Prince Harry in his 2023 memoir Spare, accused his stepmother of planting the seeds of this coronation decades ago.

Watch: Four revelations from Prince Harry's memoir. Post continues below.

"Shortly after our private summits with [Camilla], she began to play the long game. A campaign aimed at marriage, and eventually the Crown, with Pa’s blessing we presumed," he writes in the book.

"Stories began to appear everywhere in all the papers about her private conversation with Willy, stories that contained pinpoint accurate details, none of which had come from Willy, of course. They could only have been leaked by the one other person present."

I mean, if this is true you’ve got to admire the woman’s commitment to her goals. I’m not even that committed to the leftovers sitting in my fridge right now.

In April, with the coronation fast approaching, the royals decided to finally drop the formalities and the word ‘consort’ from her title.

Some would say it was a victory for side chicks everywhere. While others would say ‘meh’.

'Queen Camilla' is an affront to both The Queen, and Diana. She doesn't deserve to be called Queen Camilla. It's why her title was established as Queen Consort long before The Queen died. I think Camilla should respect titles and not try to promote herself to head of state...

— Selina Chan (@iamselinachan) April 28, 2023

Total disrespect for his Mother’s wishes…the late Queen decreed Camilla be ‘Queen Consort’…Now gone; Charles ignores his mother’s wishes and expects us to call her Queen Camilla…don’t bloody think so!! NOT MY QUEEN..played the long game and achieved what she set out to do

— Colin1961 (@Colin19612) April 29, 2023

I’m not sure that I’m happy that Camilla is to be called Queen. Should of stuck to Queen Consort. Philip was never King & was always called Prince Philip & he was obviously happy with that. She could have just been Princess Camilla.

— Jen k 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@Jenny_1884) May 3, 2023

At the end of the day, we can never truly know the ins and outs of Charles and Camilla’s relationship (despite listening into several of their deeply personal phone calls against our wills) and Camilla’s motivations. 

Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Those two crazy kids were madly in love and couldn’t keep their hands off each other and Camilla is determined to finally get what is rightfully hers. 

As the kids on TikTok would say: Go off, Queen.

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.