Queen Camilla appeared in high spirits as she mingled with members of the Loose Women panel at a SafeLives reception today.
The 77-year-old patron of SafeLives met with Jane Street-Porter and Denise Welch in Clarence House, London, at an event for domestic abuse survivors, frontline professionals, and supporters to mark the charity's 21st anniversary.
The royal appeared delighted as she chatted with Janet, 78, and Denise, 66, who yesterday responded to sensational claims that she had 'gone missing in a hot air balloon'.
Elsewhere during the event, Camilla met with Diana Parkes, founder of the Joanna Simpson Foundation, which aims to transform the care, support, and protection of children affected by domestic abuse and homicide.
The wife of King Charles also greeted other attendees at the event, including Ursula Lidenberg.
To celebrate the charity's 21st anniversary, which strives to transform the response to domestic abuse, Camilla sliced open a cake SafeLives workers proudly watched on.
Earlier this afternoon, Queen Camilla visited The King's Gallery at London's Buckingham Palace to promote her late brother's elephant conservation charity.
The Queen inspected a giant 'Green Man Humpty Dumpty Egg' in her first public engagement since the King was hospitalised briefly for the side effects of his cancer treatment last week.
Camilla was all smiles as she admired the 2ft sculpture. 'This is very exciting, a real Humpty Dumpty,' she said.
Installed outside the King's Gallery, the piece is one of 123 that make up 'The Big Egg Hunt' campaign by Elephant Family, the conservation charity founded by Her Majesty's adored late brother Mark Shand.
Commissioned by the King and Queen, the egg's leafy design was created by artist Alice Shirley and inspired by their love of nature and conservation.
'It's absolutely beautiful, I loved the idea,' Camilla told the London-based designer, who collaborates with the French fashion house Hermes and is an alumna of The Royal Drawing School and Byam Shaw School, Central St Martins.
Alice explained that her design, painted in acrylics onto a shell made from recycled plastic, was based on a combination of the Green Man of traditional folklore, whose image also appeared on invitations to the Coronation, and the traditional nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, used here to symbolise the broken state of the natural world.
Two Coldstream Guardsmen, in full uniform, posed alongside the egg to reflect the Humpty Dumpty rhyme 'All the King's Horses and all the King's Men', which is adapted with the line 'couldn't put the Green Man together again' on the egg's plinth.
The Queen told the artist, who works from her studio in Camden, London, that the King would be 'very excited' by her work.
Speaking afterwards, Alice said the monarch had been a 'huge supporter' of her work since she studied at the Royal Drawing School in 2009 and owns several of her works, including an ink drawing of a gorilla and a painting of a leopard, which he received for his 70th birthday.
She said of the egg, which took her a month to paint, 'lt's the kind of commission you can't say no to.' She had continued to work on it until earlier today, repairing some slight chips to the shell with gold leaf.
Their Majesties are joint patrons of Elephant Family, which works with conservation experts on the ground to tackle the challenges facing Asian wildlife and the communities living alongside them.
After the London egg trail, the sculptures will be auctioned off to raise funds for their work.
Other artists and brands who have decorated eggs include Anya Hindmarch, Philip Colbert, Duncan Campbell and Charlotte Rey, LUAP, Fortnum & Mason and Chopard.
Members of the public can 'collect' the eggs via The Big Egg Hunt app as they follow the trail, which spans places including Chelsea, Canary Wharf, Covent Garden and Marble Arch, and landmarks including Battersea Power Station, the Barbican, the British Museum and the Royal Albert Hall.
At Queen Camilla's SafeLives event, she leant her support to a family campaigning to lower the age of domestic abuse classification to include under 16s.
She also described the scale of violence within the home, coupled with social media, as 'terrifying'.
The royal was speaking the parents of Holly Newton, a 15-year-old who was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend in Northumberland in January 2023, at a reception held at her London residence of Clarence House.
Holly's mother Micala Trussler is campaigning for the age at which a person can be classed as a domestic abuse victim to be lowered as the law currently stipulates that both victim and perpetrator must be over 16.
Speaking afterwards Mrs Trussler said: 'Our daughter was murdered in 2023 and we're campaigning for the law to be changed so under 16s can be classed as the victims of domestic abuse.'
Mrs Trussler said that it was 'really amazing' to meet the Queen. 'She was really down to earth and lovely and she was really passionate about our campaign.
'She is supporting us in our campaign and she's looking to help young people as well. [She said] she's sorry for our loss and we shouldn't have to be here doing this.'
Her husband, Lee Trussler, said that the Queen's support meant that their campaign was 'getting heard in the highest place in the country'.
He added: 'We're hoping other people are going to take notice that the Queen's paying attention so they can get behind us and get the law changed to protect the kids.'
The Queen's comments came as she hosted a reception for around 100 guests to mark the 21st anniversary of the Safe Lives charity.
Camilla, who has been patron of the charity since 2020, also spent time talking to Diana Parkes, whose daughter Joanna Simpson who was killed in her family home by her estranged husband.
Mrs Parkes, who appeared on the ITV documentary The Queen: Behind Closed Doors, told Camilla that the scale of domestic abuse was 'frightening'.
'Terrifying,' agreed Camilla. 'And social media.'
Speaking afterwards, Mrs Parkes said: 'Yes we were speaking about that and also sadly how these young boys are stabbing each other and how horrendous that has been now. Frightening. These young boys who don't really know what they're doing.
'And social media plays a huge part in all this. The internet has been wonderful but my God it has done a lot of damage as well, let's be honest.'
Camilla has credited Mrs Parkes and her dignified battle to secure justice for here daughters, as well as other families affected by murder and violence within the home, as being one of the inspirations behind her own work.
The Queen was awarded a Safe Lives 'starfish award' by Maya Balachandran.
She explained that the starfish was a symbol from a story of a girl who was saving individual starfish by throwing them back into the ocean.
When she was told that she wouldn't be able to save them all, she said her work was nevertheless important because it 'meant all the difference' to each individual starfish.
She said: 'Your Majesty, for nearly five years you've been a patron of Safe Lives, using your platform to shine a light on domestic abuse and the need for change. Your support has reached those who might otherwise not be heard.
'Like saving those starfish who have been washed ashore and returning them to safety in the water one by one.'
The Queen told guests, who included Cherie Blair, Penny Lancaster, Denise Welch and Janet Street Porter, that she wasn't going to make a speech but nevertheless gave an off-the-cuff address in which she said: 'I just wanted to thank all of you here for everything you're doing for domestic abuse.
'Safe Lives has contributed so much. It's touched so many people and saved so many lives.
'I would not be standing here if it was ten years ago. And none of you would have been standing here because we wouldn't have been talking about it. It was taboo subject and nobody wanted to talk about it. But now, here we are, ten years later, we've got survivors telling their stories who, years ago, would have been too ashamed to come forward to tell their tales.
'But now they'll get up and they'll talk and they'll inspire others to talk, so it's just to say we've come a really long way.'
The Queen also spoke to Penny Lancaster and went on to have an animated conversation with Loose Women presenters Denise Welch and Janet Street Porter before greeting Cherie Blair.
It comes after food critic Tom Parker-Bowles gave a rare insight into life with his mother, Queen Camilla, on a leading food podcast.
The writer, 49, revealed what he grew up eating around the dinner table and what family life was like with his mother, now Queen Camilla, father Andrew Parker-Bowles and sister Laura Lopes.
Tom, who is the Mail on Sunday's restaurant critic, revealed that he used to grow up eating hearty roast dinners - but always had a love of fast food.
He also gave several insights into Camilla's cooking abilities and her go-to takeaway order.
The writer made the revelation during an appearance on the podcast Table Manners with Jessie & Lennie Ware earlier this month.
During the discussion alongside Henry Jeffreys, the Queen's son opened up about what family life was like in the kitchen and around the dinner table.
Tom explained that his mother always ensured her children ate well - but added she doesn't cook much anymore for obvious reasons.
He told the podcast hosts: 'Not so much anymore - She's busy, but she was bringing up two children in the '70s and '80s, in Wiltshire.
'It wasn't that my dad would cook, [Camilla] was a good cook, but she wasn't a recipe follower.
'Get a chicken, put a lemon up his a***, you know, put butter all over it, put it in the oven. That's dinner!'
He continued to say that growing up he didn't eat out often and his first experience of a restaurant was on a trip to London with his grandmother.
'Growing up in Wiltshire in the '70s and '80s, you did not go out to eat,' he confessed.
'I went to London with my granny, who took us to nice Italian restaurants. But in the country - Wimpy in Swindon. '
And, although he enjoyed the occasional treat, he admitted that the most memorable dish from his childhood was roast chicken and a baked potato.
He said: 'I suppose it would be my mum's roast chicken.
'And then she'd never make gravy, but she'd she'd cut off that fatty bit and, you know, the bit that hangs over, and put it on the top, and then she'd pour all the juices over your chicken, and it'd be a baked potato, and that was it.'
He went on to describe how he would often be allowed the odd takeaway and to rent a film, although Camilla was strict about the movies he could and couldn't watch.
Tom said: 'And the other thing was fish and chips. The fish and chip shop was in our local town, so we went to the video shop afterwards.
'She [Camilla] told them I wasn't allowed to get eighteens, so I'd get Lethal Weapon, and the Delta Force (..) whatever it was.
'It was just pre the Video Recordings Act, so they weren't rated. But she would know all this stuff.
'And then you get fish and chips and a video, and it's just like, this is the life…and a coke!
During the podcast, Tom also revealed that his last supper would consist of his mother's roast chicken or his favourite order from McDonald's.
He told the hosts he would start his feast with as much caviar as possible before moving on to the main and skipping desert.
'As a main course, I should say roast chicken or a Big Mac. The cheeseburger is about as perfect a creation as you could ever have anywhere on Earth.
'I love it. I hate Burger King. I have no time for Burger King. I can do a zinger at KFC (...) Nando's I have a lot of time for. An extra hot chicken wrap.'
Elsewhere during the discussion, Tom confessed that he preferred lunch to dinner because he likes the freedom that comes with extending the meal throughout the day.
He revealed: 'A long lunch is one of the great pleasures of life, you know, because lunch has possibilities. Dinner, it finishes - 'Oh, it's 11 o'clock, I've got to get back to the dog or the children, whatever'.
'Lunch, 'shall we roll into dinner? Shall we carry on here?', Fergus Henderson said that, you know, it's just full of romance.'
