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Queen Camilla and Ruth Jones
NEED TO KNOW
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Queen Camilla had an awkward moment while meeting Gavin & Stacey star Ruth Jones
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While shaking hands with the actress at an event in Wales celebrating King Charles’ birthday, the Queen remarked to Jones, “Haven’t you lost masses of weight?”
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Jones made headlines talking about her weight loss back in 2011
Queen Camilla made a social faux pas during a recent meeting with actress Ruth Jones.
The Queen, 78, and King Charles were visiting South Wales for his 77th birthday celebrations at Cyfarthfa Castle on Nov. 14, where they met with Welsh celebrities, including Jones, 59.
A Daily Mail reporter captured the moment in which the Queen, while shaking Jones’s hand, remarked, “Haven’t you lost masses of weight?”
The BAFTA-winning actress laughed as she replied, “Yes, I have, thank you! I’ve lost a bit of weight!”
Jones became a television star in the U.K. for co-writing and co-starring in Gavin & Stacey with James Corden. The show aired from 2007 to 2010, returning for Christmas specials in 2019 and 2024.
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Ruth Jones attends the GQ Men of the Year Awards at London’s Royal Opera House on Sept. 2, 2008
The actress made headlines for her weight loss in 2011, losing “four stone,” or nearly 60 lbs. She attributed her success to “aversion therapy,” explaining in a 2024 podcast interview how hypnotist Paul McKenna trained her to give up chocolate.
“I hate the word ‘struggled’ with my weight, but I have been in a battle with my weight all of my life. As long as I can remember. I can’t ever remember being slim,” Jones told Table Manners hosts, singer Jessie Ware and her mother Lennie.
She admitted that she was “a little bit cynical” of McKenna’s treatment at first, which involved thinking about the chocolate and then alternating to thinking about a food you dislike — in Jones’s case, mushy peas — and going back and forth until you mentally link the two.
“Anyway, it worked. It completely worked,” she shared. “I didn’t eat chocolate for five years. I couldn’t stand the smell of it.”
Justin Goff Photos/Getty
Ruth Jones showed off her ‘four-stone’ weight loss at the British Comedy Awards in London on Dec. 16, 2011
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While her weight loss was back in the news recently, due to the Gavin & Stacey 2024 Christmas special, which earned Jones the 2025 BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance.
In October, she and Corden released a book they co-authored on the journey of the show, titled, When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between: A Story of Love and Friendship.
Scott Garfitt/BAFTA via Getty
Ruth Jones and James Corden attend the 2025 BAFTA Television Awards on May 11, 2025
Some royal watchers speculated that Queen Camilla isn’t up to speed on Jones and Corden’s comedy, though the royal has shared a fondness for certain television shows in the past.
In May 2024, she admitted to having watched the first season of Bridgerton while touring a garden modeled on the Netflix period drama at the Chelsea Flower Show. Back in 2022, Camilla told Strictly Come Dancing champion Rose Ayling-Ellis that the whole royal family had been watching and cheering her on — even Queen Elizabeth!
“I don’t know how you did all those dances,” Camilla told Ayling-Ellis, according to The Daily Mail, during a visit to the EastEnders set.
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