She attended Dumbrells School in Sussex, as well as Queen's Gate School in Kensington; later she attended Mon Fertile, a finishing school in Switzerland.

She made her debut in London in 1965. In her youth she worked for a year at the London decorators, Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.

The Duchess of Cornwall's parents are Major Bruce Shand, a British Army officer turned wine merchant, and his wife, the late Hon. Rosalind Cubitt, eldest child of Roland Calvert Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe. Among the Duchess's forebears is Thomas Cubitt, who made a fortune constructing much of London's West End for the Grosvenor family. An aunt is Elspeth Howe, the former chair of the Broadcasting Standards Commission. She has one brother, Mark, and a sister, Annabel.

In 1973 the then-Camilla Shand married Andrew Parker Bowles, a Roman Catholic. They had two children together, the Tatler food columnist Tom Parker Bowles, who was born in 1974 and is a godson of Prince Charles, and Laura Parker Bowles, born in 1978. The children were both raised as Roman Catholics. Tom attended Eton, while Laura attended the Roman Catholic St. Mary's Convent School, Shaftesbury. Andrew and Camilla were divorced on March 3, 1995.

She was a Lloyd's of London Name, but is said to have lost most of her private fortune (an inheritance of approximately £500,000 that was derived mostly from her Cubitt ancestors) in the Lloyd's of London insurance market.

She is a dedicated horse-rider and enjoys hunting.