King Charles and Queen Camilla have been enjoying a very busy schedule during a four-day state visit to the US.
The royal couple have zipped around, their trip including a White House arrival, an address to Congress, a state dinner, and a visit to nearby New York City and Virginia.
But the King and Queen have also made sure to attend events to highlight causes important to them, which is how Queen Camilla came to be spending time with Sex And The City star Sarah Jessica Parker.
The actress joined Camilla at the New York Public Library to highlight the importance and benefits of reading, a focus dear to the Queen’s heart. While best known for her role in the TV series and its spin off And Just Like That… the actress has also recently been involved in raising the profile of reading. The two previously met when Parker server as a juror for the Booker Prize in 2025, when she was received by the royal at Clarence House.
The Queen took the opportunity to promote her literary charity, the Queen’s Reading Room at the event that hosted a number of high-profile writers and readers, also meeting with former Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour.
Parker strolled down the steps of the iconic building in a white, polka-dot midi dress, joining the Queen who was looking very Big Apple-chic in a navy dress and matching knee-length coat.
This time the two women seems to be in jovial spirits smiling and laughing through the event.
Parker told reporters at the New York event, “Every time you shine a spotlight on reading and the relationship between a reader and a book and how it changes lives and enriches lives and cultivates empathy and curiosity, I’m so grateful. And for Her Majesty, it means a great deal.”
Queen Camilla was also joined by local children as she read aloud from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.
The 78-year-old royal – who established her Queen’s Reading Room initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic – has been promoting the joy of reading with a number of different initiatives.
It was recently announced she will further explore her own love of books, as well as that of her late father Major Bruce Shand, in a new documentary for the BBC.
Speaking at a Clarence House reception prior to heading to the US Camilla said: “I’m delighted to announce that we have partnered with the BBC and Blink Films for a major new documentary that will showcase the life-transforming power of books – my father’s and my own experience included – for which the cameras are filming here this evening.”
At the event the Queen was joined by King Charles, the Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Anne’s husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence and famous faces including Stanley Tucci, Sir Derek Jacobi, Celia Imrie, Sigourney Weaver, Richard Osman, Jeffrey Archer and Jojo Moyes.
She expressed her amazement at the way her initiative has grown from a lockdown reading list to an online book club, then a registered charity which runs a podcast, hosts an annual literary festival and has commissioned research.
She said: “I find it hard to believe that it is five years since I founded it, at the height of lockdown, with the simple aim of sharing my lifelong conviction that books make life better.
“Since then, it has expanded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, especially mine, filling over 22,000 seats at our annual festival; becoming a charity; forging partnerships with local organisations that combat domestic violence and homelessness; donating thousands of books; and creating literary content for our global digital audience of 12 million from 184 countries.”
Alien actress Sigourney praised the Queen for her encouragement of reading and said her advocacy has felt like a “personal” message to pick up a book, prompting her to follow the recommendation to explore MM Kaye’s epic novel of British-Indian history The Far Pavilions.
She said: “Luckily, I didn’t know how big it was because I read on Kindle and I’m having the best of time.”
The BBC have promised the “powerful” documentary – which is produced in partnership with the Open University – would feature a “special and intimate contribution” from the Queen, as well as other stories from people whose lives have been changed by the joy of books.
They said this would involve sharing the childhood experiences that first sparked her passion for reading and the comfort she still finds in books.
“These include personal recollections of her father, Major Bruce Shand, and his experience being held in a German prisoner of war camp; when reading reinforced a lifelong enthusiasm for the written word, which he later imparted to his daughter.”
And Suzy Klein, head of BBC Arts and Classical Music TV, hopes the documentary will help change lives by encouraging people to read.
She said: “We are especially delighted that Her Majesty the Queen, a devoted reader and champion of literature, is at the heart of this celebratory new project exploring the power of great books to change lives for the better.
“The simple act of opening the pages of a book can be one of the most powerful and transformational choices we can make.
“Books aren’t trying to distract us or sell us anything. Instead, they take us outside our own problems and challenges to a whole new world – one we can see in our mind’s eye.
“And the power of that different point of view can deeply change our perspective on ourselves – as demonstrated by the moving, emotional stories of the contributors to this special documentary.”
The programme will be broadcast on BBC Two later this year.
