The rain came down in sheets. King Charles III and Queen Camilla had just settled in at Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium for the country’s Independence Day parade when a tropical storm broke out; for a few long moments, the King found himself without an umbrella. His aides couldn’t get to him because strict rules restrict movement during the national anthem. His frustration was visible. Then the humor kicked in.
© Getty Images“I think I’m about to grow watercress on my suit,” Charles joked to Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, in a moment captured in a video. Days later, at a dinner for Commonwealth leaders, he brought the joke back: “Part of my role as head of the Commonwealth is to provide an umbrella for all of you…”
Camilla saw the funny side as soon as they got back inside. According to a second high-ranking source who spoke to our sister website HELLO!, the Queen burst out laughing and declared, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so soaked in my life.”
“I think this might be the last time you see that outfit," said the King.
© Getty ImagesResilience, stoicism and a sense of humor
That rain-soaked afternoon was the near-perfect illustration of what a senior palace adviser calls the formula behind the royal couple’s success on the road. “I think the secret for both of them lies, first, in resilience, because these are intense visits; second, in stoicism, because not everything goes right, but what matters is how situations are handled in the moment; and finally, in a sense of humor,” he told HELLO!.
The tour tested all three. Over nine days, Charles moved through the Bahamas, Guyana, and Antigua and Barbuda, delivering four speeches and carrying out around 40 engagements. Camilla joined him for the final leg in Antigua and Barbuda, where he attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. For a head of state who turns 78 later this month and has kept working through cancer treatment since his 2024 diagnosis, the pace spoke for itself.
© POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesAs royal watchers have long noted, everything seems to go smoothly with Camilla at his side. “I know that at the end of each day they laugh together about how things went,” the adviser said. “What underpins everything is the strength of their relationship and their determination to keep going despite their age.”
The question hanging over the tour
Beyond the weather, the trip played out against some of the most delicate geopolitics of Charles’s reign. Caribbean leaders and campaigners pressed for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and for talks on reparations, and the issue dominated British coverage from the moment the royal plane left London.
On the monarchy’s future in the region, Buckingham Palace was direct. “The King and the royal family are there to serve the people of these regions for as long as they wish. But if they no longer wish it, we are completely open to that possibility. The family serves when it’s needed and, if not, a new arrangement can be found,” the senior adviser said.
There’s a template for that. In 2021, Barbados removed the British monarch as head of state. Charles, then Prince of Wales, attended the ceremony as guest of honor alongside Rihanna, who was named a National Hero that night. The island became a republic but explicitly chose to remain in the Commonwealth, a transition now held up as the model for how a realm can make that move.
© POOL/AFP via Getty Images
