How King Charles Foraged for Mushrooms as Queen Elizabeth Died
King Charles was foraging for wild mushrooms at the moment his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died, and did not tell his son Prince Harry that she had passed away before the news was made public by the BBC.
A new book, Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story by royal biographer Robert Hardman detailing the queen’s final hours says that although Charles knew his mother was dying, he misjudged how much longer she had left to live, hence his decision to go foraging for mushrooms in the woods around her home in Balmoral, Scotland, while her life ebbed away.
The same lack of extreme urgency characterized his contact with sons Prince William and Harry on September 8, 2022, Hardman says. Although he contacted both his sons and urged them to travel to Scotland, he did so under the impression that the queen “had days, not hours, to live.”