Kate Middleton gives comeback update as King Charles ramps up return

The King was all smiles with David Beckham as he celebrated the work of his foundation alongside other celebrity ambassadors including Sir Rod Stewart and Naomi Campbell.

Charles attended the King’s Foundation inaugural awards ceremony which showcased the work of students, teachers, alumni and partners who have contributed to the organisation’s charitable efforts in London on Tuesday evening.

The foundation is the custodian of the Highgrove gardens and offers workshops, programmes and short courses focused on heritage and craft skills at its Barley Court education centre on the estate.

Animal Rising activist Dan Juniper said: “We know that King Charles is a big fan of Wallace and Gromit, [as] he has publicly said before.

“And so we wanted to get King Charles’s attention in a way that he would enjoy and therefore be more likely to listen to us.”

Gallery owner Philip Mould explained that it was behind a piece of glass that protected the image of the King when the Monarch’s face was replaced with that of the animated character Wallace and a speech bubble was added.

“We had anticipated that there might be these type of responses,” Mould said of the portrait, which hangs in London’s Philip Mould Gallery.

“(The painting) is safely secured in its frame with protective layers.

“One always lives with that thought these days. I wasn’t hugely surprised.

“The attack on the picture was not actually of a serious nature. The perpetrators put water on the surface very quickly in a swift manoeuvre and then they added stickers to that.

“No damage was done. The stickers only remained up for about 10 or 15 seconds, and then were taken down by my gallery staff.

“I asked the individuals to leave and they did.”

The RSPCA has responded to the vandalism of King Charles’s new portrait, which targeted the organisation.

Animal Rising supporters claim they defaced the image of the King at a London gallery to draw attention to the alleged plight of animals on RSPCA Assured farms.

An RSPCA spokesperson said: “We are shocked by this vandalism of His Majesty [the] King, our patron’s, portrait.

“We welcome scrutiny of our work, but we cannot condone illegal activity of any kind. Our staff and volunteers work extremely hard rescuing, caring for, and speaking up for animals.

“Animal Rising’s sustained activity is distracting from our focus on the work that really matters – helping thousands of animals every day.

“We remain confident that our RSPCA Assured scheme is the best way to help farmed animals right now, while campaigning to change their lives in the future.”

In the incident today, the Monarch’s face was replaced with that of the popular animated character Wallace and a speech bubble was added to the Jonathan Yeo portrait that read: “No cheese, Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms!”

Daniel Juniper, 29, from the charity Animal Rising, was one of two men responsible for the attack at the Philip Mould Gallery in London.

He said: “We put up the posters nice and smoothly and as soon as we did people started chuckling behind us.

“There was a buzz around the gallery, people came and talked to us, took photos of us and then we were politely asked to leave. People came up and said they loved it.

“The staff member asked us what we were doing and why and let us talk about what we wanted to talk about.

“He wasn’t negative. He was concerned for the painting and we then took the speech bubble off and they took the (face) down later.”