Prince William and Harry’s 'Forgotten' Stepsister Is a Regular at Royal Events but Leads an Ordinary Life

Prince William and Harry have a step-sister— Laura Hopes—who is close to the royal family but avoids the media spotlight. Lopes, the daughter of Queen Consort Camilla and her first husband, British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, is a regular at royal events. She was also seen during Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral. Lopes made her first public appearance with the royal family in 2005 at her mother's wedding to then-Prince Charles, where she was photographed interacting with her new stepfamily.

According to the UK Sun, Lopes is a well-known art curator. Earlier in 2001, she served as a motoring correspondent for the upscale publication, Tatler. Thereafter, she switched to art and ran The Space Gallery in Belgravia, London. She went on to co-found and serve as gallery director of Eleven Fine Art for the next 11 years.  At present, she runs independent art exhibitions and is rarely seen at big red carpet events, although she did make a rare appearance at the 2012 Tate Modern world premiere of James Bond's blockbuster, Skyfall. She wed Harry Lopes, a chartered accountant and a Baron's grandson in 2006. The couple are parents to three children- daughter Eliza, 14, and twin boys, Gus and Louis, 12. 

According to the Daily Record, Lopes' husband is heir to both the Skelpick estate in the Scottish Highlands and Gnaton Hall in Devon. Both Prince William and Harry along with Kate Middleton attended her wedding at St. Cyriac's Church in Lacock. Her elder daughter was also a bridesmaid at William's 2011 wedding to Middleton. Additionally, Lopes was a guest at Harry's 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle. Despite being King Charles's stepdaughter she hasn't earned any royal titles. “We are commoners,” Tom Parker Bowles, Camilla's son said during an interview with 9 News in 2015. 

The established food critic is the author of five cookbooks, including Let's Eat: Recipes from My Kitchen Notebook (2012) and Fortnum & Mason: Time for Tea (2021). In 2023, Tom defended his mother on the News Agents podcast before King Charles III's coronation. He bluntly stated, “I don’t care what anyone says, this wasn’t any sort of an endgame. She married the person she loved and this is what happened."

As per The Telegraph, Tom, who is the godson of Charles, recently showered praise on his step-dad. "Charles...genuinely is the loveliest man in the world, and I am not just being oily. [He] knows so much about food and loves his food, as does my mother...They are very well-suited. They work well together, and we are happy that our mother is happy," he told Hello! magazine. "He is someone you can ask about food and it's like asking an academic," he added about the King.