Trump questions Camilla on Royal relations during visit

President Donald Trump reportedly tried to get Queen Camilla to spill the tea on Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, during his state visit to the UK last month, according to a report. King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted Trump and First Lady Melania at Windsor Castle in September, making him the first US president to be invited for a second state visit to the UK.

At one point during the trip, Trump apparently turned to Queen Camilla and asked: “So what’s the gossip on Meghan then? What’s going on there?” a source told The Royalist Substack newsletter.

Camilla was able to gracefully avoid stirring the pot, reportedly crossing her wrists as if to suggest that she was handcuffed, and couldn’t say anything on the matter. The hand gesture is one the king is also known to deploy when he is unable to speak on a subject, according to the report.

At the time of Trump’s visit, Meghan and her husband, the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, were thousands of miles away at their home in California, as they are no longer working royals.

The White House and Buckingham Palace did not immediately return The Independent’s requests for comment.

While Trump has long been intrigued by the British monarchy, his fixation on Meghan is well known.

In 2016 when Trump was a presidential candidate, the then-actress Meghan Markle called Trump “misogynistic” and “divisive” during an appearance on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.

The Suits actress’s comments resurfaced when she became engaged to Prince Harry. Trump was reminded of the remarks ahead of his first UK state visit in 2019.

“I didn’t know she was nasty,” he told reporters at the time. Trump later claimed those remarks were “made up by the fake news media,” but The Sun shared a recording and transcript of the interview proving otherwise.

Following the visit, Trump praised the royals during an interview with Piers Morgan, saying he thought Meghan was “very nice.” He also called Prince Harry a “terrific guy.”

Trump later took issue with Meghan and Harry after the couple relocated from Canada to Los Angeles in 2020. At the time, Trump wrote on social media that the US would not pay for their security protection, and that “they must pay!”

A representative for the couple responded, writing they had no intention to ask the US to foot the bill.

Trump soured on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after they released a video encouraging Americans to vote — and seemingly endorsed former President Joe Biden without actually saying his name.

In the video, part of the Time 100 list of influential people, Harry says: “As we approach this November, it’s vital that we reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity.”

Meghan then added: “Every four years we are told the same thing, that this is the most important election of our lifetime. But this one is.” When asked about the couple’s comments during a White House press briefing, Trump replied: “I’m not a fan of hers.”

“I wish a lot of luck to Harry, he’s going to need it,” Trump added.

Trump continued to comment on the Sussexes after leaving office. During a 2022 interview with Piers Morgan, Trump slammed Harry as being “whipped like no person I think I’ve ever seen.” The former president then said that Meghan would likely leave him “when she decides that she likes some other guy better.”

Trump has also weighed in on Prince Harry’s US visa application, which came under scrutiny after the Duke admitted to using cocaine, smoking marijuana and experimenting with magic mushrooms as a teenager in his 2023 memoir Spare.

In 2024, Trump claimed the Biden administration had been “too gracious” to Harry since his move to California with Meghan.

“I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me,” Trump told the Express at the time.

Soon after Harry admitted to the drug use, The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, DC-based conservative think tank, filed a freedom of information request for documents relating to the Duke of Sussex’s visa application.

Heavily-redacted documents were released earlier this year after the foundation argued Prince Harry’s right to privacy was outweighed by an “intense public interest” in whether he received special treatment during the application process.

But when asked if he would deport Prince Harry, Trump told the New York Post in February: “I don’t want to do that. I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”

Trump has long shared his love for the British royals, often speaking of his rapport with the late Queen Elizabeth II, whom he claimed to have “automatic chemistry” with.

However, it seemed those feelings weren’t reciprocated. Author Craig Brown wrote in his biography, A Voyage Around The Queen, that the late monarch found Trump “very rude.”

She is said to have “particularly disliked” the way he “couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, as though in search of others more interesting.”