EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Prince Charles’s stepson left devastated after the death of his girlfriend

Prince Charles’s stepson, Tom Parker Bowles, has been left devastated after the death of his girlfriend at the age of 42.

Camilla’s food writer son Tom had been going out with former journalist Alice Procope for almost two years.

‘Tom had been blissfully happy with Alice and is devastated that life can be so cruel,’ says a friend of Tom, who separated from his fashion writer wife, Sara Buys, in 2018.

Procope was known as Alice Horton while working as a diary reporter. 

Prince Charles’s stepson, Tom Parker Bowles, has been left devastated after the death of his girlfriend at the age of 42. Camilla’s food writer son Tom had been going out with former journalist Alice Procope for almost two years

She was the granddaughter of the 2nd Viscount Ingleby and had three young children with her estranged husband, Robert Procope, grandson of baronet Sir Robert Wigram.

A friend tells me: ‘Partly because of Covid, Alice’s cancer diagnosis didn’t come until last August by when it was too late. 

‘That’s what’s so really cruel and there will be countless others like her.’

Charles is close to Tom and admired the way he has handled the future King’s relationship with his mother Camilla.

At school and university he was subjected to many snide remarks about his parents in particular about Camilla’s lengthy affair with Charles and its effect on Diana.

In 2018 he moved out of the Shepherd’s Bush home he shared with Sara and their two children after 12 years of marriage.