Queen Camilla Shares Special Message to America During Her First Visit Since 2005

Queen Camilla just wrapped up her first trip to the United States in more than 20 years.

“It’s been whistlestop,” her majesty, 78, told Jenna Bush Hager, 44, in an interview with the Today show that took place during her visit to the New York Public Library on Wednesday, April 29.

The pair had previously met during Camilla’s last visit in 2005, when she and King Charles III were still newlyweds. The couple visited the White House, where Hager’s father, then-president George W. Bush,  hosted a state dinner.

“It’s been really good fun, but we have moved quite fast,” admitted Camilla, who spent the first two days of this trip in Washington, D.C., this time as guests at a state dinner hosted by President Donald Trump.

“But everybody’s been very kind and welcoming,” she shared during the interview, which aired on Thursday, April 30. “It’s always a pleasure to be here and always lovely to be back in New York again.”

The book lovers were at the iconic NYC institution for an event for Camilla’s charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, a book club she started during  pandemic in 2020.

“We’re all sitting there, twiddling our fingers, not quite knowing what to do, and I just gave eight of my favorite books to a local newspaper. Bingo,” Camilla recalled of starting the charity. “All these people write to me all over the world so we thought why not try and take it a step further?”

The Queen’s Reading Room now reaches 180 countries with a podcast, literary festivals and book donations.

Celebrities including Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker attended the event, which included a talk with bestselling authors Harlan Coben and Min Jin Lee.

Camilla also shared a special message to America ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary.

“Well, I’d like to say, keep reading,” she told Hager. “I think it’s very important, and you know, specialist statistics are showing reading is falling in children. We’ve got to find a way of bringing it up.”