The Queen has said she tries to keep the King “in order”, as she responded to quips about men “not being the best patients”.
On a visit to Belfast, she said the monarch was “doing very well” as he receives treatment for cancer.
It came on the day a new picture of the King was published showing him in a car being driven out of Buckingham Palace.
The Queen, who travelled to Northern Ireland without her husband after he stepped back from public duties following his diagnosis, was given a get-well card by a shop assistant.
She thanked Brenda Robb and told her King Charles was “doing very well” and that he was “very disappointed he couldn’t come”.
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Reacting to jokes about men “not being the best patients”, Queen Camilla responded: “I try to keep him in order.”
Ms Robb said of the Queen: “She was beautiful, a real lady. She accepted a get-well card that I got for her husband and she said she was sorry her husband wasn’t here.
“It was a very appropriate card. It had a wee saying from Belfast, basically rest up, take care, and on the back of it, it said from Ireland. It was picked with love.
“People say maybe he’ll not get the card, but I think he will.”
The 75-year-old monarch is being treated for a form of cancer, but Buckingham Palace has not revealed what type it is, only that it is not prostate cancer.
During her Belfast visit, the Queen, 76, stopped at Coffey’s Butchers, The Arcadia deli and Knotts Bakery before doing an impromptu meet and greet with well-wishers.
She was presented with a gift of some local favourites at Coffey’s, including vegetable rolls and beer sausages, and responded by saying: “I shall take these back for my husband, he will make the most of them.”
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At Knotts, Camilla met owner William Corrie, as well as his wife, former Miss Northern Ireland and Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon, and their one-year-old son Fitz.
The Queen smiled and chuckled as a joke was made about the young boy, dressed in a tuxedo, stealing her thunder.
She left Knotts with a gift of a fruit loaf and some iced madeira cake, adding she hoped to eat it later.
The royal also met Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, as well as authors, actors and performers at an event highlighting the importance of literature and World Poetry Day at Hillsborough Castle.