King Charles III beamed as he met the world’s older person, 116-year-old Ethel Caterham shortly after bidding farewell to US President Donald Trump.
The monarch, 76, met with the pensioner at her care home in Light water in Surrey on Thursday.
She became the oldest living person in April following the death of Brazilian nun, Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at 116.
Upon arriving to the visit, the King held Mrs. Caterham’s hand while he introduced himself.
Mrs. Caterham, who was wearing gold fur-lined sequined slippers, a patterned sage dress and a pale pink shawl, told him she remembered when the late Queen Elizabeth crowned him at Caernarfon Castle.
After the King expressed delight at her recollection of his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales when he was 21, she added: “And all the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.”
The remark prompted a hearty laugh from the King, with one of the elderly woman’s granddaughters, Kate Henderson, adding: ‘You were saying that the other day, weren’t you?
‘You said ‘Prince Charles was so handsome. All the girls were in love with him’. A true prince – and now the King.’
Charles, who responded with a playful grimace, quipped: ‘Yes well, all that’s left of him anyway.’
Mrs. Caterham chose to celebrate her latest birthday quietly with just her family – but it was revealed at the time that she would have made a concession for the King.
A few weeks later, the monarch duly obliged just by travelling to see her in person.
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During Charles’ visit, the pair also spoke about Mrs. Caterham’s fond memories of a Buckingham Palace Garden party she attended in the 1960s.
On the table between the chairs was a previous birthday card from Charles and Camilla, one from the late Queen Elizabeth II, and a framed, signed letter from the King congratulating Mrs. Caterham on her 116th birthday.
Seventeen cards were just some received from both the King and the late Queen Elizabeth II to mark her birthdays since turning 100, including the one marking her centenary.
In 2023, Mrs. Caterham featured on the monarchy’s official Instagram when she was filmed receiving a card from the King in a post to mark her 114th birthday, where she was joined by three granddaughters, Kate, Julia Pauling and Lucy Robinson.
Mrs. Caterham was born on August 21 in 1909, in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, five years before the start of the First World War, as the second youngest of eight siblings.
She is the last surviving subject of Edward VII, who died in May 1910.
In 1927, aged 18 she travelled to India and worked as an au pair to a military family until she was 21.
She met her husband, Norman, who was a lieutenant colonel in the British Army and died in 1976, at a dinner party in the UK in 1931.
The couple lived in Salisbury before being stationed in Gibraltar and Hong Kong.
While in Hong Kong, Mrs. Caterham set up a nursery school and raised two daughters, both of whom died before her. One of her sisters, Gladys, lived to be 104.
Mrs. Caterham drove until she was 97 and enjoyed playing contract bridge in her centenarian years. She survived Covid in 2020 aged 110.
The title of the oldest person ever is held by French woman Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years 164 days, according to Guinness World Records.
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