Chaotic moment King Charles told of Queen Elizabeth’s deteriorating health hours before her death

The dramatic moment at which King Charles found out about his mother’s deteriorating health has been revealed – with the late Queen’s son alerted just moments before an official announcement was made.

Royal expert Jack Royston has claimed the King and his wife Camilla heard “footsteps running in the hallway” of their Scottish home Dumfries House before the news was relayed by phone.

“Camilla was actually about to record an interview with Jenna Bush Hager (George W Bush’s daughter, an author), who said she heard footsteps running in the hallway,” Mr Royston told Newsweek.

“Charles took a call, everything was silent, and they were asked to be silent. Then the next thing she knew, Charles and Camilla were in a helicopter.

“And that was at 12.30pm (UK time), so that was around exactly the same time that we were told.

“So they didn’t wait, they didn’t give Charles an hour or two hours.”

In a separate media appearance with NBC, Ms Hager told of how she was preparing for an interview with Camilla – now the Queen Consort – when chaos erupted.

“We were there at 8.30am, the interview was supposed to start around 2pm or 2.30pm, I was supposed to meet with (Camilla) around 1.30pm,” Ms Hager said.

“At 12.30pm we heard sort of running up and down the halls and it was her team and his team, they came in and said can you please be quiet there’s a call — we were right by then Prince Charles’s, now King Charles III’s, office.

“And then all of a sudden we heard a helicopter. They said the Queen is ill and they have gone and rushed off to be with her.”

News of the Queen’s rapidly failing health sparked a mad dash from senior royals to Balmoral Castle but it is believed only Charles and her daughter, Princess Anne, arrived prior to her death.

Prince William drove himself, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex to Scotland, arriving at Balmoral estate just after 5pm.

It is believed they were too late to farewell the Queen, whose death was officially announced at 6.30pm.

Prince Harry – who happened to be in Britain for a charity engagement alongside wife Meghan – flew up to Scotland but only arrived at Balmoral at 7.52pm.

The public’s first indication that something was wrong was during Liz Truss’s first Prime Minister’s Questions, when Nadhim Zahawi, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, passed on a note in the Commons.

Not long after – in a statement released by Buckingham Palace at 12.32pm – it was revealed Britain’s longest-serving monarch was “under supervision” with doctors “concerned for her Majesty’s health”.