‘Queen of Mean’ Anne Robinson secretly dating Queen’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles

Andrew Parker Bowles and Anne Robinson have been in a relationship for more than a year, according to reports.

The Queen’s ex-husband, 83, and the former Weakest Link television presenter, 79, are said to have avoided being photographed together to keep the relationship private for as long as possible.

It is said that the Queen, who divorced Mr Parker Bowles in 1995, is supportive of the pair’s romance.

A friend of the couple told The Sun that the pairing was a case of the “Brigadier and the Queen of Mean”, in reference to Mr Parker Bowles’s time in the Army and Robinson’s 17-year stint as the no-nonsense presenter of the BBC’s The Weakest Link. Robinson earned the nickname for her savage put-downs of contestants on the game show.

The insider told the newspaper: “They have judiciously avoided being photographed together as they both wanted to keep this quiet for as long as possible.

“Annie proudly tells everyone she is the daughter of a market trader chicken-seller and is as far removed from a toff as could be. Frankly it beats any storyline The Crown could possibly come up with.”

It is said that the couple were set up by a mutual friend and that Robinson has invited the former brigadier as her plus-one to several dinner parties in her Cotswolds home.

One of their first dates was reported to be a dinner party also attended by Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary.

Their mutual friend told The Sun that she remained “fiercely independent and self-sufficient”, adding that there was “no chance” of the pair living together.

Robinson and Mr Parker Bowles have both been married twice and their relationship has been described as an “open secret”.

Robinson has one daughter, Emma, from her first marriage to the late Charles Wilson, which ended in 1973. She divorced her second husband, John Penrose, in 2007.

Retired Army officer Mr Parker Bowles married Camilla in 1973 and they have remained close friends since their divorce in the mid-90s.

They have two children together, art curator Laura Lopes and restaurant critic Tom Parker Bowles.

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