Queen Camilla gives personal update on heath as she continues to cancel outings

The Queen made her first public appearance since falling ill with a chest infection.

Camilla, 77, stepped out to meet authors at a Booker Prize reception at Clarence House on Tuesday, after being being forced to miss the annual Festival of Remembrance and Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph.

Giving an update on her health as she arrived, Her Majesty said she is “getting much better”. Watch below…

The Queen was greeted in the Garden Room by chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, Gaby Wood, and chair of the 2024 judges, Edmund de Waal.

She shook their hands and told Gaby: “I’m obviously getting much better. A bit of sort of coughing going on.”

“I really wanted to come,” Camilla added.

She congratulated shortlisted authors at her and the King’s London abode ahead of the winner being unveiled in the evening.

It marked Camilla’s first public engagement since she contracted the seasonal bug following her long-haul tour to Australia and Samoa two-and-a-half weeks ago.

She told American writer Percival Everett, who she met after he made the 2022 shortlist, that: “I think I’m on the mend, but these things always take a bit of time to get rid of. You think you’ve got rid of it, then they just sort of hang on for a little bit, but hopefully I’m on the mend now.”

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Camilla’s appearance at the reception on Tuesday was shortened after it had been confirmed she had pulled out of the royal premiere of Gladiator II in London, scheduled for Wednesday. HELLO! understands that Her Majesty’s absence is due to health reasons. 

But she will still join the King at a special palace reception on Wednesday celebrating the TV and film industry, but she is not expected to stay for the entirety of the engagement.

The changes to her diary are understood to have been made to protect and prioritise her continued recovery, with royal doctors keen to prevent any setback.

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On Thursday the King turns 76, with Charles marking the day by opening the first two Coronation Food Hubs – one in person and one virtually. The Queen had hoped to join him, but the visit will remain a solo one.

A documentary on the Queen’s work raising awareness of domestic violence also aired on Monday evening. Camilla was followed over the course of a year for the ITV1 and ITVX programme Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors, and in it she vowed to “keep trying” to end domestic violence, describing it as a “heinous crime”.