Julie Bishop makes a touching gesture to late Monarch with her outfit

Australia’s former foreign minister has made a sweet gesture to the late Queen during an interview on the Today Show.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has spoken about her friendship with the new King.

Speaking on the Today show, Ms Bishop said she’d “come to know King Charles rather well”.

“He is extraordinarily intelligent, has a very inquiring mind, asks lots of questions, is incredibly well briefed,” Ms Bishop said.

“I have met him both in my role as foreign Minister at Commonwealth events and on some of his trips to Australia.”

Julie Bishop appeared on The Today Show on Monday wearing a simple black blazer, black shirt and some pearls.

The former foreign minister wore a simple outfit of a pearl necklace and black blazer as she appeared on the Today Show on Monday. The late monarch, who died on Friday, was known to favour wearing pearls.

Ms Bishop said King Charles had visited Australia about 16 times, and she had liaised with him while working as the chair of the Prince’s Trust.

“I spent time with him in his sitting room at Highgrove as we spoke about political events of the day and then more recently at a dinner at St. James palace, and he’s also taken part in zoom calls with a number of the people that we are assisting through his charity – veterans, young people, those involved in building sustainable communities,” she told the Today Show.

She described his “self-deprecating” humour and talked of her experience with him in Vanuatu, visiting a hospital in 2018.

“I was holding a little boy who put his hand up to Prince Charles, who was holding a cup of tea at the time, and Prince Charles scooped up a little bit of tea as if he were going to feed it to the middle boy,” she said.

“And I looked at Prince Charles like, what are you doing? And he said, ‘Come now, Julie, a Silver Spoon never hurt anyone.’”

Former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop. Picture: AAP / Richard Wainwright

She went on to discuss the Prince’s Trust, which was established in the UK in 1976 while King Charles III was in the Royal Navy.

“He received a severance pay of 7,400 pounds and so he put that towards charitable causes and then that evolved into the Prince’s Trust UK.”

Since then, there have been Prince’s Trusts set up in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

King Charles attempts a shot in a catapult game during a Prince's Trust visit to Cymru Activity Centre at Pembroke Dock in 2006. Picture: Anwar Hussein Collection / ROTA / Wire Image

“Here in Australia, we work with young people developing skills, trade skills, life skills, we work with veterans to give them opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills to start businesses, and we’ve actually helped establish about 100 businesses by veterans and their families,” Ms Bishop said.

The Australian Prince’s Trust is aiding families affected by the bushfires on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, which, Ms Bishop revealed, King Charles initiated.

She spoke fondly of visiting Vanuatu where she helped the now King chose a gift for his wife, Camilla.

“We were in Vanuatu, at a local market and Prince Charles, as he then was, was looking for some gifts for Camilla and we picked out a woven basket and a hat,” she said.

“And then we had to scramble around to find some local currency to pay for it, which he ultimately did. But he was collecting gifts for his wife, Camilla, and so I’m sure they are somewhere within the Royal Palaces.”

Ms Bishop and King Charles visiting children in Vila Hospital, Vanuatu. Picture: Instagram