Moment King Charles learned the Queen was seriously ill: ‘Please be quiet, there’s a call’

Former US President George Bush’s daughter reveals she was at King Charles’ home the morning of the Queen’s death.

Former US President George Bush’s daughter has revealed she was at King Charles’ home the morning of the Queen’s death where he didn’t appear to have any inkling his mother had just hours to live.

The remarkable insight into the private gathering with the now-monarch may lend itself to further speculation that the Queen suffered a sudden and catastrophic decline in the hours before her death.

Jenna Bush Hager, 40, who is a TV host for NBC’s Today, arrived in Scotland on September 7 for a meeting with the Queen Consort, Camilla - who at the time was Duchess of Cornwall - to prepare for an interview at Dumfries House the following day.

King Charles, and Camilla, Queen consort, were in Scotland in the days leading up to Queen Elizabeth’s death. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

NBC shows Jenna Bush Hager, left, and her husband Henry Hager dined with King Charles on his last night as a prince. Picture: NBC, Peter Kramer.

But Camilla‘s British Airways flight was delayed and so King Charles - then a prince - stepped in and invited the former first daughter and her husband to meet him for dinner on Wednesday evening.

Ms Bush Hager said she “had a wonderful evening filled with conversation that felt joyful” and that the King did not appear to have any inkling that his mother had just hours to live - on what turned out to be the eve of the Queen’s death.

“He (Charles) said: ‘My darling wife is so sad … she can’t wait to sit down with you tomorrow,” Ms Bush Hager told the program, where she hosts an hour-long segment.

“So I think this was sort of a surprise,” Ms Bush Hager added about the sudden news of the Queen’s health issues on Thursday.

The next day, Ms Bush Hager’s interview with the then-Duchess of Cornwall was abruptly called off about two hours before it was expected to go ahead when she and her crew were interrupted by royal staffers in the library.

“The next morning we were setting up the interview, we were at their house,” Ms Bush Hager continued.

“We were there at 8.30am, the interview was supposed to start around 2pm or 2.30pm, I was supposed to meet with the now Queen Consort around 1.30pm.

“At 12.30pm we heard sort of running up and down the halls and it was her team and his team … they came in and said ‘can you please be quiet there’s a call’ — we were right by then Prince Charles’s, now King Charles III’s, office … And then all of a sudden we heard a helicopter. They said the Queen is ill and they have gone and rushed off to be with her.”

Buckingham Palace officially announced the Queen’s death on September 8.

Jenna Bush Hager opens up about having dinner with now King Charles just hours before it was announced that Queen Elizabeth II had died. pic.twitter.com/HicTlNSeIt

— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) September 12, 2022

She “died peacefully” aged 96, at her Balmoral estate after spending 70 years on the throne.

Just two days earlier, the Queen had accepted the formal resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and invited incoming PM Liz Truss to form a government.

Mr Johnson later said that the Queen was “bright and focused” at the meeting, and photographs taken of her with Ms Truss showed her beaming broadly for the camera.

Her cause of death has not yet been determined.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II smiles during a visit to officially open a new building at Thames Hospice in Maidenhead, Berkshire, on July 15, 2022. Picture: Kirsty O'Connor / AFP.

Ms Bush Hager has a long relationship with King Charles and the Queen consort dating back to her father’s presidency.

Her own relationship with her future husband became public when they first appeared together at a White House dinner for King Charles and Camilla, the Queen consort, in November 2005, according to reports.

Originally published as Moment King Charles learned the Queen was seriously ill: ‘Please be quiet, there’s a call’