Jenna Bush Hager Reveals What It Was Like To Be With The Royal Family Before The Queen's Death

For over a year, "Today" co-host Jenna Bush Hager consulted with Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles' team to set up an interview to celebrate a joint book selection between The Reading Room, Camilla's book club, and "Read with Jenna."

Bush Hager traveled to Dumfries House in Scotland intending to interview Camilla on September 8. The evening before, the Texas native and her husband dined with then-Prince Charles."It was a lovely meal," Bush Hager recalled, speaking about the meeting on "Today." She was particularly charmed by Charles' reference to Camilla. "He said, 'My darling wife was so sad [not to make it].'" Charles' friend Alan Titchmarsh also attended the get-together. "The Prince and the atmosphere are relaxed and friendly," he wrote in The Telegraph.

"I think this was sort of a surprise," Bush Hager told her fellow co-hosts, referring to the news of the queen's ill health and heartbreaking death on September 8. "At 12:30, we heard sort of running up and down the halls," she recounted. Her team was setting up for the interview next to King Charles' office at the time. "[The royals' team] said, 'He's on a call can you please be quiet,'" Bush Hager added. "Then, all of a sudden, we heard a helicopter." Charles and Princess Anne would be the only two royals with the queen at her death.

After being told Charles and Camilla had left for Balmoral, the 40-year-old gave an emotional update on camera. "The whole U.K.'s heart is breaking for this family,' she told said. "[Prince Charles is] a man who I'm sure is hurting terrifically today."