A Fox News personality’s ill-timed quip about gun violence prompted a swift intervention from royal staff during a White House state dinner honoring King Charles III and Queen Camilla last week, turning what was meant to be a diplomatic reset into an awkward viral moment.
Jesse Watters disclosed the embarrassing encounter on Wednesday’s broadcast of “The Five,” describing how he was physically removed from the queen’s presence after making a joke about Washington crime during formal introductions on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. The white-tie banquet, hosted by President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, marked the second day of a four-day state visit aimed at mending strained relations between Washington and London.
During their brief exchange in the receiving line, Watters had asked the 78-year-old queen about her White House tour of the South Lawn, where officials recently installed a beehive designed to resemble the executive mansion. She responded that the experience had been pleasant — “It was very good. No one got stung.”
The Joke That Crossed The Line
“Well, you know, it was Washington D.C., you know, if the bees don’t get you, the guns will,” Watters said he told the queen, according to his own account on the air.
“And then this woman just starts pulling me away from them,” Watters recounted to his shocked co-hosts. “I don’t know what I was saying. Ugh. I started mumbling.”
Dana Perino, a fellow panelist, expressed audible shock — “You said that? To the queen?!” — while Greg Gutfeld, who was also present at the dinner, brushed it off as “classic Jesse.” Harold Ford Jr. and Emily Compagno had begun the segment by complimenting the Fox attendees on their formal attire.
The remark landed particularly poorly given recent events. Just three days before the dinner, a gunman had charged a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, allegedly intending to assassinate Trump and members of his Cabinet. Gun violence remains a politically sensitive topic in the nation’s capital, where Trump seized control of local police in August 2025 and brought in National Guard troops, declaring it “liberation day in D.C.” The Metropolitan Police Department reported that gun violence in the District actually fell to a 30-year low in 2024.
A Frosty Reception From The King
Watters’ troubles had started before he even reached the receiving line. He revealed on air that he and his wife, Emma, were detained at security after he incorrectly filled out her birthdate on entry forms. A guard told him that “every member of Fox screwed up their paperwork.” Fellow anchor Bret Baier later confessed he had also gotten his wife’s birthday wrong, while Gutfeld admitted to misspelling his wife Elena Moussa’s name.
Once inside, Watters’ interaction with the 77-year-old King Charles proved no more successful. The monarch didn’t recognize him at all. After Watters explained his role — “I’m on Fox and I have two shows” — Charles delivered a characteristically British response: “Well, they must really love you here.”
Gutfeld described a similarly lukewarm encounter with the king. Trump had introduced him by bragging he had “the No. 1 show on late night,” which prompted Charles to inquire where this program aired. When told Fox, the king responded simply, “I see. It’s on Fox. Very good.” Gutfeld then cracked that he “took off with Camilla. Yeah, just to horse around” — a joke Watters predicted would ensure he wouldn’t receive another invitation.
A Visit Steeped In Symbolism
Charles’s trip represented his inaugural visit to America as monarch and the first state visit by a British sovereign since 2007. Scheduled around the 250th anniversary of American independence, the journey was broadly understood as an attempt to rescue the “special relationship” following multiple clashes between the Trump administration and London over the conflict in Iran.
Charles addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, earning widespread praise. Trump stood beside the king before the evening’s banquet and told reporters he was “very jealous” of how well the speech had been received, acknowledging that Charles had “made a great speech.”
The expanded White House beehives, featuring the mansion-shaped structure, tied into the royal family’s longstanding beekeeping heritage and provided Queen Camilla with a gentle photo moment on the visit’s opening day — a narrative the Watters incident briefly upstaged.
The royal itinerary stretched beyond Washington to include visits to New York and Virginia. A garden party at the British ambassador’s residence Monday evening launched the social schedule, and the couple departed Thursday afternoon following a concluding day in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
Watters embraced the humiliation on social media, posting on X: “I ALMOST got THROWN OUT of the Royal State Dinner.” Gutfeld added his own reflection on “The Five,” hinting the experience might not be repeated. “It was my first state dinner, it might be my last,” he said. “They’re still investigating the incident in the men’s room.”
