Back in November 2022, an official royal biographer has revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth II ”suffered in silence”, keeping her battle with bone cancer private in the final few years of her life.
The former monarch passed away peacefully in September 2022 due to ”old age”, according to her death certificate, but with this health news coming to light, we can’t help wondering if other health conditions were at play.
Writing in his book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, British author Gyles Brandreth sensationally claimed that the Queen suffered greatly and was in ”excruciating pain” in her final years as she battled cancer alone.
Giving his claims significant weight was the fact that Gyles was a ”dear friend” of the late Prince Phillip before his passing in 2021 and had met with the former monarch on several occasions over the years.
”I had heard that the Queen had a form of myeloma – bone marrow cancer – which would explain her tiredness and weight loss and those ‘mobility issues’ we were often told about during the last year or so of her life,” he wrote.
”The most common symptom of myeloma is bone pain, especially in the pelvis and lower back, and multiple myeloma is a disease that often affects the elderly.
”Currently, there is no known cure, but treatment – including medicines to help regulate the immune system and drugs that help prevent the weakening of the bones – can reduce the severity of its symptoms and extend the patient’s survival by months or two to three years.”
Now, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also claimed the late monarch was diagnosed with bone cancer in her final years.
In his upcoming memoir, Unleashed, Boris details his final meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, which took place at Balmoral Castle just two days before her death.
“I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were worried that at any time she could enter a sharp decline,” he wrote in an excerpt obtained by the Daily Mail.
Boris went on the claim the Queen’s private secretary warned him that her health had deteriorated significantly.
“She seemed pale and more stooped, and she had dark bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from drips or injections,” he wrote.