Night Charles showed off his love

Everything was meticulously planned for "Operation Ritz," in which Prince Charles and his lifelong love Camilla Parker Bowles at last went public as a couple.

But what nobody could be sure about on that night was how the media and the public would react.

In the court of public opinion, and with feelings running high in the aftermath of the tragic death of Princess Di in 1997, divorcee Charles was a guilty man, a cheat, and an adulterer.

And royal mistress Camilla was one of the most reviled women in the country, the villainess in Di's "crowded" three-person marriage.

No wonder they were nervous.

The mastermind behind the operation was Charles' spin doctor Mark Bolland.

The occasion was carefully chosen, and there were some false starts as they were sensitive to criticism that they would be hijacking some other event.

So we come to January 28, 1999. The venue, London's exclusive Ritz Hotel. It was here that the couple left a glitzy birthday party in the full glare of the world's media, who knew what was afoot, having been tipped off.

It was the first time they had stepped out as a couple. Not since the days of Diana had so many photographers, TV crews, and reporters, gathered to record a royal event. The cameramen were three deep on step ladders.

Charles and Camilla had chosen the 50th birthday party at the Ritz of somebody the public had never heard of – Camilla's s sister Annabel Elliott – to "come out" as a couple in public. They arrived separately, but braved the media gauntlet as they left together just before midnight, with no public shows of affection.

Previously they had gone to great lengths to avoid being seen, or photographed, together in public, and Operation Ritz was part of a process to get the public used to their relationship.

Reaction was mixed. A poll showed that members of the public were against Operation Ritz, but there were signs of a softening in hostility from the tabloids.

For the Shropshire Star's part, it was described as a seismic non-event, the only surprise being that Charles and Camilla had left it so long to go public.

"Stand by for further episodes of this soap opera. Everybody knows the plot. Camilla will appear more and more at Charles' side until they are accepted as a bona fide royal couple," said our leader column the following day.

It concluded: "They're both old (ish), free, and single. It's time to let Di-gones be Di-gones and let love takes its course."

Operation Ritz marked the end of one long private journey and the beginning of another, this time in public.

It all went back to 1972 when Camilla was introduced to Prince Charles and is alleged to have said: "My great-grandmother was your great-great-grandfather's mistress, so how about it?"

Theirs was a long relationship which notoriously encompassed marriages to other people.

It was in July 1973 that the then Camilla Shand married into the Parker Bowles family – a family which, for much of the 20th century, had been among the leading figures in Shropshire society.

The family home was Far Croft, one of the best known houses in Market Drayton, and the Parker Bowles name was revered in that town.

Head of the family was Eustace Parker Bowles, a grandson of the sixth Earl of Macclesfield and son of the Rev the Hon. A.R. Parker, formerly rector and rural dean of Malpas.

And it was Eustace’s grandson, Andrew Parker Bowles, who lived in Wiltshire, who Camilla married, a union which was to prove ill-fated.

Charles was reportedly heartbroken. Girlfriends, or would-be girlfriends, came and went.

A teenage Lady Diana Spencer went to watch him at Ludlow races in October 1980, where he was competing on his horse Allibar.

It quickly became apparent that she was The One. And an enduring media frenzy began.

Diana's companion that day was virtually ignored. It was only later that the significance of the pictures taken by Shropshire Star photographers was realised. Because the companion was Camilla Parker Bowles, and the pictures captured two royal brides-to-be.

It would perhaps be going too far to say that the British public has grown to love Camilla – an opinion poll put her joint highest of the most disliked royals (with Prince Andrew) – but time, the great healer, has made the public more accepting than they once were.

Twenty years on, it's mission accomplished for Operation Ritz.