Jenna Bush Hager Blows Lid Off Timeline of Queen's Death

Today with Hoda and Jenna co-host and former First Daughter Jenna Bush Hager, who was apparently having a nepo baby sleepover in Scotland with Prince Charles (now known as King Charles) the night the Queen died, offered viewers some insight into the Queen’s final hours.

Bush Hager had dinner with Charles on the night of September 7 at his residence Dumfries House in Ayrshire, Scotland. Bush Hager slept over, intending to interview the then-prince’s “darling wife” Camilla Parker Bowles (now known as Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles) for television the next day. Camilla didn’t make it home in time for dinner with the mah-MAH’s boy and daddy’s girl, but Charles was allegedly in good spirits nonetheless. The Queen’s flagging health was not an immediate cause for concern at dinner.

“I mean, we had a wonderful evening filled with conversation that felt joyful... and so I think this was sort of a surprise,” Jenna told Today viewers.

She went to bed at the Charles and Camilla’s former Wales’s home and woke up to interview Camilla. Per the Daily Beast:

“The next morning we were setting up the interview, we were at their house,” she said. “We were there at 8:30 a.m., the interview was supposed to start around 2 p.m. or 2:30 p.m., I was supposed to meet with the now-queen consort around 1:30 p.m.

“At 12:30 p.m., 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.”

This timeline is telling, in my opinion. Operation Unicorn, the protocol enacted when the Queen died in Scotland, mandated that immediately upon the Queen’s death Charles became King. If the Queen had died in her sleep and was found the morning of Sept. 8, Charles, as heir to the Crown, would’ve known far earlier than 12:30 p.m., when Bush Hager notes the commotion began. Dumfries House is 150 miles from Balmoral — Camilla and Charles took a helicopter.

At 12:34 p.m. in the U.K., the Palace released a statement about the Queen’s health.

Various reports on the day of the Queen’s death alleged that Charles was summoned to Balmoral at 6:48 a.m., but Bush Hager’s timeline seems to contradict that. The Palace released an official death announcement on Twitter at 6:30 p.m. U.K. time.

According to the Beast, “The account of the intimate activities inside Prince Charles’ home on the day of his mother’s death is unlikely to please the palace. A spokesperson declined to comment to The Daily Beast.”

The Palace has still not offered a timeline of events, nor a confirmation of who was at the Queen’s bedside when she passed. One thing is for sure: This ushers in a brave new era in which we use Today as a primary source.