King Charles and Queen Camilla participate in beach cleanup in Antigua

The royal couple participated in the activity at Fort James Beach, using litter pickers to collect trash and deposit it in bags. Queen Camilla removed her shoes and walked barefoot on the sand.

Jennifer Meranto, founder and CEO of Adopt a Coastline, briefed the King and Queen on the organization’s work, along with two of her youth ambassadors. Meranto reported that 71 bags of rubbish were collected from the beach in just two hours, a statistic that visibly surprised the King.

Chantal Miller, founder of Island Girls Rock and a collaborator with Adopt a Coastline, shared a surprising connection with the King, revealing that she is best friends with his goddaughter, Fiona Compton. The King remarked, “Small world.”

Miller is also the founder of Know Your Caribbean, an organization focused on Afro-Caribbean representation in art and media. Her father, the late Saint Lucia prime minister Sir John Compton, had a close friendship with the King.

The day concluded with a banquet for Commonwealth leaders, marking the final event of Charles’s nine-day tour, which also included visits to Guyana and the Bahamas.

During the banquet, Charles lauded the Commonwealth’s ability to unite diverse nations, adding a lighthearted comment about potentially needing to provide an umbrella for everyone, referencing a recent moment when he playfully requested one during a rain shower at an independence celebration.

The King and Queen departed Antigua aboard the ministerial jet Voyager, accompanied by Antigua’s governor-general, Sir Rodney Williams, and his wife, Lady Williams.