The Prince of Wales today paid a moving tribute to his "darling grandmother", the Queen Mother, who died on Saturday.
In a passionate televised address from his Highgrove home Charles said she had an "utterly irresistible mischievousness of spirit" and her death was a moment he had dreaded.
"Somehow I never thought it would come," he added. The prince said: "She seemed gloriously unstoppable and ever since I was a child I adored her."
The prince's eyes filled up as he recalled how he used to laugh and laugh with the Queen Mother.
"She was quite simply the most magical grandmother you could possibly have and I was utterly devoted to her.
"Her departure has left an irreplaceable chasm in countless lives but, thank God, we are all the richer for the sheer joy of her presence and everything she stood for."
The prince, wearing a dark suit and black tie, was seated in the Orchard Room in an outbuilding of his Gloucestershire residence, with two framed photographs of the Queen Mother on a table behind him.
PA