Meet Prince William & Prince Harry's 'Hidden' Stepsister, Laura Lopes
A member of the royal family who isn't often talked about.
Frederic Legrand - COMEO & Bart Lenoir / Shutterstock When it comes to the royal family, the same few faces keep making headlines — especially Kate Middleton, Prince William, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle. But there's a little known member of the extended fam that even the biggest royal watchers may not know much about: Prince Harry and Prince William's stepsister.
As most of us know, after the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997, Prince Charles remarried, wedding Camilla Parker Bowles.. and just as Charles had kids of his own, Camilla had her own, too, and they officially created a blended family together.
Who is Prince William and Prince Harry's stepsister, Laura Lopes?
Laura Lopes is the 42-year-old daughter of Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles.
Despite the fact that her mother is married to the future king of England, Lopes tends to live her life away from the spotlight, and she doesn't seem to have any social media to speak of. Because she lives her life like a more "normal" person, not much is known about Camilla's 42-year-old daughter. After attending a Catholic boarding school, she went on to study art at Oxford Brookes University.
She works as an art curator.
Though Prince William's job is to be a full time royal (and so was Harry's, until he and Meghan Markle left the royal life earlier this year), Lopes is free to have a career of her own and in this case, it's all about art. According to her portfolio online, Lopes has an internship at Peggy Gugenheim under her belt and worked at Eleven Fine Art for 10 years, curating gallery exhibitions.
She and her husband, Harry Lopes, have three children.
Lopes got married in 2006 to Harry Lopes, a chartered accountant. They have three children together: Eliza, 12, Gus, 10, and Louis, 10.
Harry & William also have a stepbrother.
Lopes isn't Camilla's only child — she has a son, too. Harry and William's stepbrother is Tom Parker Bowles, who is a well-known food critic and has written several books on the topic, including actual cookbooks. He is married to Sara Parker Bowles and has two children, Lola, 12, and Freddy, 10.
The step-siblings don't consider themselves part of the royal family.
Though their stepfamily is just about as royal as it gets, Lopes and Parker Bowles don't technically put themselves in that category, as he explained in an interview last year.
"[We're] not quite part of the royal family to be honest," he said at the time. “My mother married into it. She’s part of it. We’re the common children. We’re just on the side.”
They all seem to get along well enough.
Now that they're all adults, it sounds like Will and Harry (and their families) get along with Camilla's kids just fine. In fact, William, Harry, and Kate Middleton all attended Lopes' wedding, and Lopes' daughter, Eliza, acted as one of Middleton's many young bridesmaids. Seems like they're one big happy family — even if we don't get to hear about them much.
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.