Queen Camilla's Blunt Verdict on US Visit as King Charles Faces 'Trump Bombshell' Over Private Iran Talks

Queen Camilla used a brief television interview in New York on Wednesday to give her clearest public verdict on the royal visit to the United States.

She told NBC's TODAY show that the trip had been 'really good fun' and 'wonderful', and her remarks came as King Charles continued the state visit and as the headline framing around a supposed 'Trump bombshell' over private Iran talks remained unsupported.

Camilla spoke to broadcaster Jenna Bush Hager during an appearance at the New York Public Library, where she attended a reception hosted by The Queen's Reading Room.

The event brought together figures from publishing and the arts, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Gyles Brandreth, Harlan Coben and Min Jin Lee, and gave the Queen a setting that plainly suits her better than the usual diplomatic small talk. Books, after all, are one of the few subjects on which she seems entirely unforced.

Queen Camilla Offers A Brisk Verdict

The exchange itself was light, almost breezy, though it revealed something about the pace of the visit. When Bush Hager noted that the trip coincided with the 250th anniversary of America, Camilla replied, 'That's extraordinary.' Asked how the visit had been so far, she did not bother dressing it up.

'It's been a whistle stop. It's been really good fun. But we have moved quite fast.'

There was a touch of understatement in that. Royal tours are designed to look smooth from the outside, but they are usually punishing up close, with the diary packed to the minute and the smiles required on cue.

Camilla acknowledged as much without complaining. When Bush Hager observed that she had already been to a lot of places, the Queen answered, 'We have, but it's been wonderful. And everybody's been very kind and welcoming. It's always a pleasure to be here. Always lovely to be back in New York.'

She was more animated when the talk turned to reading, which remains the most consistent public thread in her work. Asked what her message to Americans was on the anniversary, Camilla said, 'Well, I'd like to say, keep reading.

I think it's very important, and you know, specialist statistics show that reading is falling among children. We've got to find a way of bringing it up.'

That concern sits at the heart of The Queen's Reading Room, the charity she launched after a reading list published during lockdown drew an unexpectedly warm response. Recalling that moment, she said, 'We're all sitting there, twiddling our fingers, not quite knowing what to do, and I just gave eight of my favourite books to a local newspaper. Bingo.'

She added, 'All these people write to me all over the world, so we thought, why not try and take it a step further?' The project has since expanded into a podcast and now reaches 180 countries.

King Charles And Queen Camilla In A Literary New York

The New York event itself leaned heavily into that literary identity. Camilla arrived in a navy blue crepe silk dress and coat by Fiona Clare and wore a Britannia red, white and blue brooch that belonged to the late Queen.

In her speech, she traced her love of books back to childhood and to the influence of her father, Major Bruce Shand, the decorated British Army officer she remembered with obvious warmth.

She told the audience that some of the first Americans she knew were fictional, met through the pages of Little Women, What Katy Did, and Charlotte's Web. 'I knew, even then, that books are the best friend you can have in good times and bad,' she said.

It was a neat line, but not an empty one. Her reading campaign has always worked best when it feels personal rather than dutiful.

That came through again in the TODAY interview when she spoke about being read to as a child. 'Oh, but he was wonderful,' she said of her father. 'He used to sit at the end of our beds every night and read us these incredibly exciting stories, some of them quite frightening, with pillows over our heads, but he just gave us this incredible interest.'

One of those childhood favourites was A A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. During the engagement, Camilla read an extract to local children before reuniting the Roo bear with the rest of the Hundred Acre Wood toy collection.

The original Roo had long been missing from the library's set, and the Queen arrived with a replacement soft toy in hand, which was a small gesture, carefully judged, and rather harder to mock than the louder headlines surrounding the trip.