A US journalist visiting King Charles' Scotland home to interview his wife Camilla has detailed the moment he received a call that his mother's health was deteriorating.
NBC TODAY host Jenna Bush Hager was at Dumfries House the night before Queen Elizabeth II's death, having dinner with the then Prince Charles.
Hager told US TV show TODAY that Camilla was due to attend the dinner too, but because of a delayed flight, the now Queen Consort couldn't come.
"He [Charles] said: 'My darling wife is so sad [she can't make dinner]. She can't wait to sit with you tomorrow'," Hager recalled.
The morning after Hager's dinner with King Charles, she returned to Dumfries House with her TV crew to set up for their interview with Camilla, which was expected to start at around 1:30pm.
But Hager said at about 12:30pm, she sensed something was awry when she heard "running up and down the halls".
It was when Camilla and Charles' team came into the room that Hager was set up in and said, "Can you please be quiet there's a call", that Hager felt something could be wrong.
"We were right [near] then Prince Charles', now King Charles III's office. They said, 'He's on a call, can you please be quiet?' Then all of a sudden we heard a helicopter."
Hager told TODAY she and her TV crew were told by officials that their interview with Camilla would be postponed.
"They said, 'The Queen is ill and they have gone and rushed off to be with her'," she said.
"We just said, 'Our hearts are with them'."
And just hours after being told their interview would be postponed, Buckingham Palace announced Queen Elizabeth II had died.
Royal commentator Angela Mollard told 7News' The Morning Show that Hager's experience showed how unexpected the Queen's death was.
"So we know how sudden, how immediate [it was].
"There was no knowledge that the Queen was this ill and I think that's the first insight we've been given into those final hours."
