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A senior palace aide has shared what really happened behind the scenes following the sudden downpour during King Charles and Queen Camilla’s Caribbean tour.

After completing their hectic nine-day trip, which covered three countries, four speeches, and nearly 40 events in sweltering heat, along with one very heavy rainstorm, King Charles and Queen Camilla’s secret to the tour’s success has come to light.

According to a senior palace aide, the royal couple relies on three simple rules. “I think the secret for both of them… is firstly stamina, because they are intense visits; secondly stoicism because not everything goes right, but it’s how you deal with them in the moment that matters; and finally a sense of humour.”

However, their positive attitude was evident at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in St John’s, Antigua. The royal couple got caught in a massive rainstorm right when they were getting ready to watch an Independence Day Parade.

According to Hello Magazine, the King looked a bit frustrated because he didn’t have an umbrella. People could not move quickly because the Antigua and Barbuda national anthem was playing. But King Charles soon shook it off. He even joked that he was “growing watercress” on his wet trousers.

A few days later, while hosting a dinner for Commonwealth leaders, he laughed about it again. According to People, he joked that “part of my role as Head of the Commonwealth is to provide an umbrella for you all…!”

The senior aide shared how the moment unfolded, “Even as the heavens opened, you’ll have seen the Queen having a little fond smile underneath her own umbrella… and he was determined to carry on with the parade.”

“That was another lovely thing – to hear the huge cheers of the stadium when he kept plugging on through,” the aide added.

The aide added that the King quickly bounced back, saying, “But then two, three minutes later, he’s up with the Prime Minister talking about his new watercress farm because all tropical storms can pass in an instant, as indeed that one did, and it’s the good humour that gets them both through it.”

Talking about their bond, the palace aide noted, “I know at the end of each day, and sometimes at the end of each engagement, they have a good laugh together about where things have gone.”

“It may have gone a bit wonky, but fundamentally underpinning it is that strength of their relationship and their determination to keep cracking on despite age and circumstance,” noted the aide.

According to Marie Claire, another senior aide shared how Queen Camilla reacted. “She looked round at me, and she just burst into fits of laughter, saying, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been so wet in my life,'” the aide said.

The aide continued about the King, “And then the King, when we got back, was laughing about the watercress comment again, saying, ‘I think that might be the last you see of that suit,’ but he thought it was genuinely funny.”

The aide also explained why the King stayed out in the rain, “He’s a man who does his job properly. He’s a man who understands the importance of ceremony, who understands the importance of ritual, and he will have wanted that to be disrupted for the shortest possible time because of this rather sudden, rather unexpected, rather extreme downpour.”

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