King Charles is "doing very well", Queen Camilla gives health update to well-wishers on Northern Ireland visit
21 March 2024, 13:28 | Updated: 21 March 2024, 14:01
Queen Camilla said King Charles "is doing very well" as the monarch continues his cancer battle.
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Camilla, 76, is on a solo two-day trip to Northern Ireland and made the admission to well-wishers as she stopped by The Arcadia deli in Belfast.
Shop assistant Brenda Robb handed over a get-well card for the monarch and extended her best wishes.
Taking the card with thanks, Camilla said: "He's doing very well. he was very disappointed he couldn't come."
Responding to a quip about men "not being the best patients," she added: "I try to keep him in order."
Charles, 75, had been scheduled to travel to Northern Ireland with Camilla but postponed all public-facing appearances after his cancer diagnosis earlier this year. The Queen decided to go ahead with the trip.
Today, while his wife was in Northern Ireland, Charles was spotted in London at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House.
He was instead seen being driven away from Clarence House as a probe continues into the alleged breach of Princess Kate's private data at the London Clinic.
The alleged breach of Kate's data took place at the clinic after the future Queen was admitted for planned abdominal surgery in January.
Since then there have been very few sightings of her and a Mother's Day photo of her and her three children sparked a social media frenzy after she apologised for editing the image.
It is a criminal offence for staff in any NHS or private healthcare setting to access the medical records of a patient without the consent of the medical provider's data controller.
Camilla has begun a series of engagements in Northern Ireland - where she was photobombed by 23-month-old Fitzwilliam Corrie-Salmon.
The boy wearing a tuxedo and bow tie posed in front of the cameras as Camilla visited a shop and talked to staff at Knotts bakery in Belfast.
At the bakery, which employs 120 people, she was told about its traditional Ulster baking methods with no machinery involved.
She was given a fruit loaf and iced madeira, which she joked she couldn't promise to take home to the King. "She said she'd eat some of them on the way home," said co-owner William Corrie, 38.
Camilla, 76, was wearing a green wool crepe dress and coat with appliqué detail by one of her favourite designers, Bruce Oldfield, and also sported Queen Elizabeth’s turquoise and diamond three leaf clover brooch.
The Queen had flown in from the Isle of Man where she spent Wednesday afternoon conferring city status to the capital, Douglas.
During a walkabout outside Douglas Borough Council, she was introduced to 38-year-old mother Rachael Hughes and her 15-week-old twin boys Louie and Oliver.
"I have a Louis grandson...quite a handful," Camilla admitted to Ms Hughes, referring to her grandson Louis Lopes, one of the twin sons of her daughter Laura Lopes. Camilla is also grandmother to Louis' twin Guy, and 13-year-old Frederick, the son of Tom Parker Bowles.
The Queen was last in Northern Ireland last May when she and the King undertook engagements on their first visit to the region following the coronation.
