Exclusive Queen Camilla Talks Trip to US Passion for Reading

It was a historic day in New York. Crowds gathered outside one of the city's most beloved landmarks, the New York Public Library, all waiting to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty, Queen Camilla. Inside, I had the honor of welcoming the Queen for a special event, celebrating literature, something close to both of our hearts. More than 20 years ago, the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall made their first trip to the U.S. as a married couple, visiting Washington, D.C. in the White House for a dinner with my parents. I had the privilege of attending with my now-husband, Henry. And you're here on this historic visit, 250 years of our country. That's extraordinary. How has your trip been? Well, it's been, this is stop. It's been really good fun, but we have moved quite fast. You've been to a lot of places, to quite a few. We have, but it's been wonderful and everybody's been very kind and welcoming. Well, it's always a pleasure to be here. It's always lovely to be back in New York. Well, we brought you to a place where you could come to this wonderful library. The New York Public Library. For Her Majesty, this state visit has also been about sharing her love of reading on both sides of the pond, through her charity, the Queen's Reading Room. I know that we share this great love of reading. You started a charity called the Queen's Reading Room, which is a book club of sorts. It is. It was started in lockdown. During COVID, Her Majesty started an online book club with a simple belief that reading has the power to make life better. We're all sitting there twiddling our fingers, not quite knowing what to do. And I just gave eight of my favorite books to a local newspaper, and bingo. All these people wrote to me from all over the world. So we thought, why not try and take it a step further? Start the book, the Reading Room. Five years later, the Queen's Reading Room has grown, reaching 180 countries with its podcast, world-class literary festivals, and thousands of book donations. The Queen says that the joy of reading has long been part of her DNA. And your father gave you this great gift of reading. Oh, but he was wonderful. He used to sit at the end of our beds every night and read us these incredibly exciting stories. Some of them were quite frightening. He used to listen to the hymns of the David Fassbenders, go to bed with pillows over our head. But he just gave us this incredible interest. One of the Queen's favorite stories is a little girl America knows well. I love Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh, now creating new memories for the next generation. Her Majesty read the story to a group of local kids. And brought a gift, a replica of Rue, to complete the library's collection. I think we're reuniting a certain member of Winnie's family. It was a special day honoring the Queen in one of her greatest passions. This is a beautiful place to celebrate the work of Her Majesty. I joined the Queen's reading room to host a discussion with best-selling authors Min Jin Lee and Harlan Coben about the importance of reading. I think that it is through reading fiction I learned about courage. Reading increases critical thinking. It increases empathy. Many notable guests turned out in support of the Queen's cause, including celebrities and fellow book lovers Sarah Jessica Parker and Anna Wintour. And I had the honor of introducing Her Majesty to the room. I am so thrilled to this afternoon to introduce a great friend for all of us who love literature. And exactly the kind of friend we all wish could be a member of one of our book clubs. Please welcome Her Majesty Queen Camilla. Of many of us have long suspected books really are good for us. They also have a magic way of bringing people together with our ability to transcend any barrier. That message of unity has been on full display during the King and Queen's historic trip. Her Majesty sharing her hope for both of our nations. Well, finally, on this 250th anniversary, what is your message to Americans? Well, I'd like to say keep reading. That's my message too. I think it's very important. And, you know, especially as statistics are showing reading is falling in children. Yes. We've got to find a way of bringing it up again. Let's work together. Let's. Shall we? My goodness. How cool was that? It was pretty amazing. You are our queen. What an incredible conversation to have. Only you could have done that. Yeah. It was really incredible. I mean, we, you know, we've been working on it for quite some time. And we had an interview planned in 2021 that was canceled because of reasons. And now I got to be with her in New York at a place that is so sacred for readers. For both of us. Did she remember your meeting back in 2005? She said she did. By the way, I brought Henry, my husband, as my like six month old boyfriend. There we are before children and such. Before marriage, right? And he was, I remember he was like, wow, you're really throwing me into the fire with this. We've seen the king on the trip to New York show so much wit and charisma. Did you get that sense about her majesty? She is lovely and very hilarious and also really has this deep and abiding passion for books. Her nonprofit is doing such incredible work. One of the things they're doing, which I'm obsessed with as a former reading teacher, is they've commissioned some really important research about the benefits of reading. And one of their studies finds that just five minutes of reading fiction can reduce your stress by 20%. They've measured the brain on books and what it does. We really, as a country, but as a world, need to make sure that our kids are getting books in their hands. Well, you know what? It's interesting because when you said, what is your message to America? She says, keep reading. It's not a throwaway line. No. I mean, it's really important for our souls, our hearts, our brains, our stress. She said how lovely everybody has been. And I think they are just thrilled with how incredible. She liked our little library over here. She liked our little tiny library. That's as good as we got right there. Great job. Very cool.