King Charles and Claudia Winkleman dance into royal honour

King Charles was all smiles on 9 December as he presented Claudia Winkleman with an MBE during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The 53-year-old Strictly Come Dancing presenter, looking chic in a white suit and headband, greeted the monarch with delight as she received the honour for her services to broadcasting. 

Her co-host Tess Daly had picked up the same accolade just weeks earlier.

When the King’s Birthday Honours list was revealed in June, Winkleman had already shared her plans to bring her mother along. 

“I will buy a hat and am taking my mum,” she joked at the time, adding: “I am ridiculously lucky.”

Upon receiving the MBE, she expressed her heartfelt gratitude. “I am incredibly grateful to receive this honour. 

It's a real privilege to work with extraordinarily talented people and I have only got this because of them. 

So this is for the BBC, the traitors and the faithful, for pianos and for the cha cha,” she quipped.

The Royal Family are avid fans of the BBC dance sensation, with Queen Camilla describing herself as “one of Strictly’s greatest fans” and telling professional dancer Johannes Radebe, “we all watch it.”