Jenna Bush Hager Recalls Having Dinner with King Charles the Night Before He Became Monarch

Jenna Bush Hager believes the now-King Charles III was taken aback last week upon hearing about his mother Queen Elizabeth's illness and subsequent death shortly thereafter.

Speaking on the TODAY show Monday, the former first daughter, 40, said she and Charles, 73, "had a wonderful evening filled with conversation that felt joyful" when they met for a "lovely meal" last Wednesday evening.

"So I think this was sort of a surprise," Bush Hager added about the sudden news of the Queen's health issues on Thursday.

Bush Hager explained that she was scheduled to interview Charles' wife Camilla — then Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Consort — on Thursday afternoon at Dumfries House in Scotland.

But about two hours before their scheduled chat, "We heard sort of running up and down the halls" — during which the royals' team "came in and said, 'Can you please be quiet? There's a call.' "

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"We were right by then-Prince Charles', now King Charles III's, office. They said, 'He's on a call can you please be quiet.' Then, all of a sudden, we heard a helicopter," Bush Hager recalled.

"They said, 'The Queen is ill, and they have gone and rushed off to be with her,' " she continued. "We just said our hearts are with them."

Cindy Ord/Getty; Jonathan Brady - WPA Pool/Getty Jenna Bush Hager; King Charles III

"It was living history," Bush Hager added in the Monday conversation with her TODAY co-anchors Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin.

Queen Elizabeth died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday at age 96. She was succeeded immediately by her eldest son, Charles, who will now be the monarch.

RELATED VIDEO: See King Charles and Queen Camilla Return to Buckingham Palace After Queen's Death

Through Operation London Bridge, the U.K. government's long-established plan for arrangements in the event of Her Majesty's death, many of the days leading up to her funeral have already been pre-planned.

On Tuesday, the Queen's coffin is expected to be flown to London, where it will arrive at Buckingham Palace before being taken to Westminster Hall for the Queen's lying in state, during which people will be able to pay their respects as they pass by the coffin.

Following Her Majesty's lying in state, the official state funeral is set to take place on Monday.

Charles was proclaimed King by the Accession Council on Saturday in an official ceremony. A date for his coronation has not been set.