King Charles called Barry Humphries in hospital hours before his death

King Charles III called Barry Humphries shortly before he died, a friend has said.

The monarch had been friends with the late comedian and spoke to him while he was in hospital, just hours before he died.

“Yesterday King Charles III spoke to Barry Humphries on the phone shortly before Barry passed away,” Humphries’s friend Rowan Dean told Sky News Australia.

He added the comic was still “cracking jokes” when the pair spoke a number of days ago, and that he “would not want people to be in mourning”.

Click here to sign up for our newsletters.