Charles gets soaked as Camilla makes her escape

Tea, Titles & Tiaras

There are moments in a marriage when you stand by your husband, whatever life throws at him. Then there are moments when someone hands you an umbrella in a tropical downpour and you make a sensible dash for cover.

Queen Camilla appears to have opted for the latter in Antigua, leaving King Charles getting progressively wetter while looking for someone who might remember that he, too, could use an umbrella.

The couple’s Caribbean visit has delivered some entertaining photographs, although the tour itself has involved far more serious business. Back in Britain, Harriet Phillips has given HELLO! her first interview since marrying into the royal family, while the Waleses opened the family photo album for Halloween.

Charles is left out in the rain

The Caribbean may promise sunshine, but Charles received a fairly emphatic reminder that the weather does not read a royal itinerary.

Arriving at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium for celebrations marking 45 years of Antigua and Barbuda’s independence on November 1, the King found himself caught in a sudden downpour. Camilla was handed a transparent umbrella and headed towards the royal seating. Charles, meanwhile, was left gesturing to his entourage.

“Where’s the umbrella?” he repeatedly asked.

I suspect most of us would be asking much the same thing, although usually without photographers recording our displeasure for the world to enjoy over breakfast.

An umbrella eventually materialised and the King went on to inspect the service personnel. The shower lasted about five minutes, with cheers greeting him when he returned.

His verdict afterwards was considerably better than the weather.

“I’ve started growing watercress on my trousers,” he joked.

Camilla’s swift departure made for an amusing sequence of photographs. You can hardly blame her for accepting the available shelter, although I imagine Charles would have appreciated someone locating his umbrella a little sooner.

A busy tour with some difficult history

Before joining Camilla in Antigua and Barbuda, Charles had already completed engagements in The Bahamas and Guyana.

In The Bahamas, he attended a youth rally at Clifford Park, returning to the place where he had represented Queen Elizabeth II at the country’s independence celebrations in 1973. His programme also included a visit to Bonefish Pond National Park to see wetland restoration work.

Guyana’s itinerary included meeting President Irfaan Ali and attending a reception marking 60 years of relations between the countries. Charles also met Indigenous leaders and visited Independence Park, the site of executions following the 1823 Demerara rebellion by enslaved Africans.

Environmental conservation has long been one of his strongest interests, but this visit has also required the King to engage with the painful history connecting Britain with the region.

On November 2, Charles and Camilla toured the museum at Government House in Antigua. They viewed shackles and diagrams showing the appalling conditions aboard ships transporting enslaved people, before passing former slave quarters.

Cuthbert Forbes, a senior assistant to the governor-general’s wife, explained that the visit was about telling the Caribbean’s story of the battles fought and the progress made.

With Charles due to open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on November 3, calls for an apology over slavery and reparations have added considerable diplomatic weight to the visit.

There was a more relaxed encounter at Nelson’s Dockyard, where the King bumped into Sir Idris Elba, who was hosting the One Commonwealth Night concert.

The actor has a longstanding connection with Charles’s charitable work, having received support from the Prince’s Trust early in his career.

Some initial reports interpreted Elba’s words during their conversation as a comment about Antigua’s prime minister. Later reporting clarified that he was sympathising with Charles about getting soaked.

The King may have travelled thousands of kilometres, but discussing the weather with another Briton was probably inevitable.

Harriet opens up about her new family

Meeting a partner’s mother can be nerve-racking enough without knowing she is Princess Anne.

In her first interview since marrying Peter Phillips, Harriet told HELLO! she had some initial nerves before meeting Anne over tea in the garden at Gatcombe. She needn’t have worried, describing her mother-in-law as “really good fun and straight-talking”.

Harriet also praised Anne’s generosity in hosting their June wedding reception at Gatcombe, where Peter grew up.

The straight-talking part is easy enough to believe. Anne has never given the impression that she would spend much time agonising over how to make her point.

Catherine has also helped Harriet feel welcome. Harriet told HELLO! their families first met while holidaying in the Isles of Scilly, with the children jumping into the water together.

It sounds a considerably easier introduction than being ushered into a formal room and trying to remember who should be addressed as what.

“I can look to Catherine for advice and guidance,” Harriet told the magazine, explaining that she would feel comfortable approaching the princess for help.

Catherine knows what it is like to marry into this family and have public interest extend to almost everything you wear or do. Having someone with that experience available for advice must be reassuring.

Harriet’s interview also revealed a change in her professional life. After 24 years in the NHS, she has moved to a private foundation, where she will continue working in infant mental health.

She also told HELLO! she has become patron of Home-Start Cotswolds, which supports parents with young children. Her clinical experience gives her an established connection with the cause, as well as an interest she shares with Catherine.

The interview offered a warmer picture of life within the family than the formal photographs tend to provide, particularly when it came to Anne. Tea in the garden sounds like a good place to start with a prospective mother-in-law, even one with a famously formidable reputation.

Louis’s Halloween throwback

The Prince and Princess of Wales marked Halloween with a previously unseen photograph of Louis, taken by Catherine when he was one.

Now eight, Louis appeared bending towards a substantial pumpkin. The photograph accompanied the couple’s first Halloween-themed social media post.

Halloween also brought renewed attention to an older story about Anmer Hall, the family’s Norfolk home.

Speaking on HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast, paranormal historian Richard Felix said the couple had been warned about a supposed resident ghost before moving in.
Felix recalled a response he believed came from William: “No old hall would be complete without a ghost, would it?”

It is a wonderfully relaxed attitude to a potential housemate. I would want to know whether the ghost had any intention of contributing to the heating bill.

Sarah returns for a farewell

Sarah Ferguson has been photographed in public for the first time in about six months, attending a memorial service for her former partner and longtime friend Paddy McNally.

She joined Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, along with their husbands, at St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge on October 29. McNally died in July aged 88.

Sarah and McNally’s relationship ended in 1985, before she married Andrew the following year, but their friendship continued for decades.

According to PEOPLE, Sarah had last been photographed in public at an Austrian ski resort in April. Her appearance at the memorial was a personal farewell, with her daughters alongside her, rather than a return to official royal duties.

Until next week, here’s hoping someone keeps the King’s umbrella within reach.