Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth has this very strange habit of coming out, a year after the fact, and ruining a perfectly good lie told by the royal family. For months/years, we were told that Queen Elizabeth II merely had balance issues and she was “unwell,” mostly because she was so terribly stressed out because of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Gyles Brandreth was the one to say: actually, she had bone marrow cancer and there was a year-long cover-up over her diagnosis and treatment. No one pushed back on it either, and now the same liars are like “well, of course she had bone marrow cancer, but she was still really mad at Harry and Meghan!”
Currently, the royal lie we’re debunking is “Queen Elizabeth was at Prince Philip’s bedside when he died.” This, to me, is a harmless lie and truly none of our business. Philip was in exceptionally poor health in the last year of his life, and they kept moving the poor man around to be “with” his wife, when really, he wanted to die at Wood Farm with Penny Knatchbull by his side. We were told that he died at Windsor Castle, with his wife by his side. The Telegraph, the Mail, every outlet downright insisted that QEII was “at his bedside.” Another lie, says Gyles Brandreth:
New information is emerging about Queen Elizabeth on the day her husband of over 73 years, Prince Philip, died on April 9, 2021.
Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth claimed that the late Duke of Edinburgh died before the late Queen could reach his bedside, he wrote in his book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait. Though the Queen was reported to have made it to her husband’s bedside when he died that morning, “In fact, I don’t believe she was,” Brandreth wrote.
He continued that “The Duke of Edinburgh had been in a hospital bed, set up in his dressing room at Windsor Castle. That morning, he went to the bathroom, helped by a nurse.”
When he came back, Prince Philip said he felt a little faint and wanted help getting back into bed, Brandreth wrote. “The nurse called the Duke’s valet and the Queen’s page, Paul Whybrew, for help — and he died before the Queen could be called. The Queen wasn’t yet up. And she wasn’t called until after a doctor had come and pronounced the Duke dead.”
The Daily Mirror described Brandreth as a close friend of the late Queen’s who “knew Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth for decades,” reportedly first meeting Queen Elizabeth in 1968 — when he was just 20 years old. Through their shared work at the National Playing Fields Association, Brandreth also knew Prince Philip well.
Yeah, they really lied their asses off about this. They really set the scene that QEII was called into his room and she was at his bedside at the very end. I’m not judging her for not being by Philip’s side, mind you. I’m judging the courtiers for lying about it for years. I actually remember how crazy it was for QEII and Philip to go into the “Covid bubble” and they made Philip leave Wood Farm and everything. He was reportedly really pissed that he was taken to Windsor Castle. Anyway… remember how they said that Charles was at his mother’s bedside at the end, then it came out that he was actually foraging for mushrooms when she died? The truth will eventually come out about all of the Windsors’ lies, at least that’s what I hope.
Years later, we can also safely say that the palace lied about this photo – it’s so clearly edited and manipulated.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Buckingham Palace.
I bet you know who was actually there. Hint, it is also a sort of incestuos thing.
What do you mean?
Penny Knatchbull is not a blood relative of Prince Philip. Her husband was distantly related to the Mountbattens. No incest detected.
Her husband was not distantly related to the Mountbattens. Norton Knatchbull, the current Earl Mountbatten, was the grandson of Lord Mountbatten. He was Prince Philip’s second cousin.
She was prince Charles girlfriend first. She worked in his office and he ended up having a relationship with her which wasn’t surprising as she was so beautiful. She wasn’t considered marriage material because her father wasn’t posh so there was no question of it lasting. So then she married his cousin. Then after they split up she allegedly went out with Prince Philip. So that’s three Mountbatten men.
No, Prince Charles dated Amanda Knatchbull not Penny (they are sisters in law).
Charles definitely dated Penny. The media likes to avoid mentioning it now because it’s a bit icky to go from Charles to his cousin to his father. But that’s how she got into that social set in the first place. By going from his office worker to his girlfriend or at least, his fling. She was never taken seriously because she wasn’t posh.
Lord Mountbatten wanted Charles to marry his grand daughter Amanda Knatchbull so his descendants would be Kings. Charles proposed to her out of duty but he was never really interested in her as she wasn’t his type. (Blonde, sexy.) And she turned him down.
We don’t have to search for “they were cousins” conspiracies . He is his wife’s (3rd?) cousin. We know this.
3rd cousin of BOTH sides of the family tree
All the Palace does is lie so this “revelation” is not surprising. I’m sure the press helped to concoct this lie too. Let’s not forget that the Sun was helping KP with its lies about Kate’s whereabouts and I’m sure “recollections may vary” was devised by a newspaper editor.
It’s not surprising to me, I don’t believe anything the Windsors put out. It’s all a facade.
Right – of course they lied. the Windsors had to put out an image of a loving marriage reaching its natural conclusion, so that included the Queen by her husband’s side. Its propaganda to make people believe this family is something it was not.
Honestly, I wasn’t judging this story at all – many spouses can’t be there when their partner passes for a variety of reasons but the whole “they didnt wake her up” is kind of a head scratcher for me. I mean maybe just say the Queen was elsewhere in the castle and didnt’ make it in time, lol.
Right? It’s such a stupid thing to lie about. Most people probably would have felt sympathy for her because she wasn’t there at the very end. They just can’t help lying about EVERYTHING.
At this point, it’s quitely likely that the duke actually died at Wood Farm with Penny by his side, but they can’t quite bring themselves to state that just yet. Unless they moved him, not because of the Covid bubble, but because they knew he was dying and wanted him in Windsor to give the illusion that he and the queen were “together” when he died. IF he did die at Windsor, he was probably in a completely different wing of the castle – and that castle is HUGE. So they didn’t bother to wake the queen until the preliminaries were over because she wasn’t just down the corridor in a different apartment.
I think they didn’t wake up the queen because she was ill herself and they generally didn’t wake her no matter what. The entire fiasco of blaming Harry and Meghan about when the birth of Archie was announced started because they couldn’t put out anything until the Queen was notified that morning and Meghan had already given birth by then. The Queen didn’t wake up till like 9 am or something so BP put out a false notice saying that delivery had started. They should have simply said Meghan had safely delivered the baby and Harry would provide more information later on.
This is more of the same. No one wanted to wake up the queen to say Philip had passed, especially when it wouldn’t be shocking at this point.
@Magdelena, agree. He died at Wood Farm. A place he enjoyed. The BM/BRF need to put out a different story. Palace/BM lies once again. I also believe that Anne was the only one at Balmoral? when QE2 died. She died earlier then was announced. Before her buffoon son arrived. Remember, Chuck was many miles away at Dumfries Hall. Camz was scheduled for a book interview with Jenna Bush at Dumfries Hall and wasn’t there.
The BRF/BM play the big turtle shell game.
I really like Gyles. His knows Harry ti seems. He never said bad things about H&M. Maybe little critics nothing like the deranged royalists rats.
Actually, this man has also repeated some of the false narratives which have been spread by the others. Because of his reported closeness to the queen and duke and Charles and Camilla, they have been treated as gospel by many. Little criticisms based on lies are exactly what he has done, just like the derangers, just like all the other tabloid writers: Times and Telegraph included.
They stuck him in his dressing room?!
Must have been one gigantic dressing room if you could fit a hospital bed in there and still have room left over for people to move around.
His dressing room was likely the size of regular people’s bedroom. Especially at the castle where the event of dressing the monarch was a public event in earlier days.
Traditionally a gentleman’s dressing room was a second bedroom used in sickness, pregnancy, didn’t want to sleep with wife for whatever reason, or just as somewhere to crash when he came staggering in drunk after an evening of whoremongering anddidn’t want to wake the wife and have to answer awkward questions.
Wonder if Egg has a dressing room.
Egg has a whole dressing house over in Kensington Palace.
It’s crazy the amount of absolute nonsense and lies they print and no one is ever held accountable..
He cheated on her before they were engaged to be married,
He cheated on her WHILE they were engaged to be married,
He cheated on her after they were married.
The Queen has to be the epitome of looking the other way and thats a hell of a long time to do so. I wonder if she ever had her own sneaky links.
‘sneaky links’. LOVE IT!
I think Porchie might have had something to say about that! I don’t know why, just because they supposedly have “magical blood” these people are supposed to lead white washed, blameless lives, with no passing resemblance to being human. I guess when one believes that they are intrinsically “better than” the rest of us, it is easy to tout this nonsense! It is well documented that Phil the Greek was an inveterate cheater, and the marriage was no fairy tale.
@antipodean- Your mention of his Greekness piqued my curiosity. Are you implying he cheated with multiple genders?
No it’s because he was born Prince Philip of Greece. He renounced that and took the surname Mountbatten (though his mother never held that anglicized version of Battenberg) to help reduce the xenophobic feelings about a marriage to the future queen.
@Neeve – Lord Porchester (Henry Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon), it was rumoured. He was the Queen’s racing manager. There were rumours about Prince Andrew’s parentage too.
Prince Andrew’s lack of going bald is quite suspicious.
What is in his will that might have embarrassed the Queen, I wonder?
@MoonTheLoon, no, it wasn’t implying that. That was the name he was always referred to by the press, way back in the old days. However, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he had leanings that way! That strata of British toffs used anybody and everybody, as was their entitled due, and they made no apologies or explanations for it. Mostly the products of British Public schools.
It’s a fairly open secret that Philip and Elizabeth separated in the 1950s. Then pretended to still be together because divorce was still considered hugely scandalous. It’s not cheating if a separated couple date other people.
That man Edward is Phillip’s child, so they couldn’t have “separated” in the 50s. Unless of course you mean that they had an open marriage starting in the 50s.
Isn’t Gyles Brandreth also friends with Camilla? I’ve seen a lot of pics of them together. He’s pretty good about not coming across as malicious in regards to royal gossip. Which is sensible when everyone else is snarky and snide. But then I remember he’s friends with Camilla so I wouldn’t wholly trust him either. I don’t see him lying about this stuff through.
Yes, he is. If you listen to him you get the impression he had the late Queen Elizabeth II on speed dial with all the anecdotes he comes out with. Gyles Brandreth is attending a lot of Camilla’s events.
I find him more on the slimy side. Remember the outcry that the late Queen Elizabeth II was upset, angry, incandescent with rage that Harry and Meghan named her after her according to sources for Robert Hardman’s biography of Charles. I watched Gyles Brandreth on This Morning, ITV, program to comment on that. He just said that the late Queen would never get angry, playing it down. Not even once he mentioned that according to his own biography of the Queen, published in 2022, the Queen took the name as a compliment, though it did also note that she “accepted their choice with a good grace” and felt the shorter “Lili” seemed “just right.”
Their default is lie, because the whole institution and the media are one propaganda machine. It is a better look to them, QE2 being by her husband’s side when he died. I am sure a lot of things we read about K&W’s marriage are also the part of the same machine, far from reality. Like Harry giving the ring to William, so that he can propose to Kate with this important ring and because Harry knew Kate was the one. Such a simple and unnecessary lie, but it makes Harry the part of K&W’s marriage from day one.
The mad thing about that ring story is that Paul Burrell initiated the lie that Harry chose the ring from Diana’s belongings. So that means that the Palace built the story of him giving the ring to William on top of Burrell’s lie.
@Amy Bee, Yeah, it might be what was told to Paul Burrell by the senior aides. This lie was repeated by a lot of royal reporters, meaning no one refuted the story even though we know the palace gives access to reporters for the royal books all the time.
i remember reading a story about William asking for Diana’s ring shortly after her death and receiving it, so it was always William’s. I find that much more believable. There were also stories of William being a bit of an “advisor” to his mum as Diana was reported to confide in him sometimes. For example, Diana herself said that it was William’s idea that she auction some of her gowns to raise money for charity. Harry was twelve, almost thirteen at the time of Diana’s death.I don’t think he’d have been interested. And Harry has since confirmed in Spare that he knows nothing about William, Kate and Big Blue.
One of the weird things to me about the lie re: Big Blue and Harry having it is that part of that same lie is that Wiliam asked for Diana’s Cartier watch because he used to that to learn to tell time.
But Harry clearly has the Cartier watch (and now Meghan does) and William had the engagement ring.
Like…..what was the point of that lie? The watch lie was well before Meghan came on the scene.
Diana would be very disappointed in William.
My initial thought on Harry being part of WanK’s marriage is Eww how disgusting, but i am reminded of William trying to insert himself into H&M’s marriage going on about Diana’s Diamonds
William thinks he deserves everything (and the best of everything at that) because he’s been told that all his life.
Harry got it right: he’s trapped. He’s been told all his life that he’s special. Turns out he’s not really up for the job (and not really all that special to boot) but too bad! He has to do it anyway. All day every day.
What a royal mess! Glad all I have to do is struggle to get by. 🫠
It’s sad that the Men in Grey, aka the gold-plated advisers, feel the need to lie so much.
The RF are taxpayer-funded, so the public has a right to know. I wouldn’t mind them withholding infos like this one — QEII was old herself, and if she was asleep…
It’s worse though to sell us lies about the head of state’s health — like QEII actually having cancer of the bone marrow, or them pretending CIII is getting better while still receiving chemo for something they won’t disclose.
The worst lies concern the Wailses though, the excuses being made for them not working, the actual costs of their houses, helis, hobbies, and the way H&M are still being abused in order to distract from C&C and WanK.
The Men in Grey should know that lies always come out, even white lies like this one — and these amateurs play a big part in making the whole institution look bad.
It was well known that Phillip retired to the farm with his long time mistress . Liz didn’t care because she had a favorite bodyguard. It was never a love match. It was for king and country, and Liz was a good little heir she married t Ms. They chose for her and produced kids on demand. While Margaret who would have been the queen Brit’s. Deserved languished in her shadow. They’re pissed off at Harry because he refused to be this centuries Margaret. Margaret didn’t want to be in the shadows but had no other choice. She didn’t have a Meghan to say you deserve better, let’s go get it.
Actually, Elizabeth was smitten with Phillip and had to scheme to get permission to marry him because he was from a disgraced and exiled dynasty. She loved him, and while he may have felt affection for her, he married her to improve his and his family’s social status. This is why he and his uncle Mountbatten fought to change the name of the ruling house from Windsor to Mountbatten, because as a woman, social convention at the time meant she should have taken his name upon marriage. However, as Queen, the government and she overruled him. The compromise, of course, was that untitled family members would use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, which is why the Sussex children had those names at birth (although, Archie and Lilli should have been known by courtesy titles but the BM is awful).
Yes! The Queen Mother didn’t like Philip and wanted Elizabeth to marry anyone else, but Elizabeth was smitten with him when she was 13. Part of the objection to him was that he was penniless, and his sisters had all married Nazis.
There are letters Philip write expressing how much he loved her and how she was the only thing real to him. The marriage was certainly advantageous and he didn’t carry a torch for years prior like she did but it’s not correct to say there was no love on his part.
Margaret was the queen the British people deserved? 🤣
Then again, if you take it in the context of how spoiled, selfish and racist Margaret was, you might be right.
Yeah that got me lol. I know Townsend groomed her and she was stunted by being second place but Margaret was pretty rude and thoughtless. She definitely believed she was put on the earth to be worshipped and nobody else mattered!
Yeah, she was an idiot & completely wrapped up in herself. Yep, she was the one they deserved, all right!
If G Bandreth is an FOC, perhaps king charles and camilla are beginning their campaign to tarnish QEII’s halo—to make chas look better in comparison.
Two statements charles made about the women in his life showcase his “values”:
First to Diana, “Whatever love is” and when asked during her last months of life how is mother was, “ She’s all right.”
So dismissive.
Always just took this to be standard obituary fodder. “Died peacefully in his bed surrounded by loves ones” is phrased to comfort the family, and show what a good job they did supporting the deceased through their final phase of life.
Anyway, this is just standard sanitization to me. They lie plenty but this one is not some scandal. “Prince Phillip died alone, with spittle on his chin and soiled bedsheets.” No thanks. I’ll take the hallmark lie.
Yeah, lies, whatever, but THAT PHOTO is some janky 1990s-era-looking
PhotoshopGimp hack.(ETA: Gimp is a free open source alternative to Photoshop.)
Sophie took the picture and it stayed within the family as a private photo for quite some time. Touching up photos that you want to have as a family keepsake is pretty understandable.
That photo is not touched up that is 2 people from 2 different photos superimposed on a background
Look Liz & Phil held it together for decades.
On the world stage, they repped Britain pretty well I’d say.
They both had the job so long, lots of us remember only them on the balcony.
Phil was 99? Liz was 96? Let them go in peace.
No one needs to know every detail.
If you’ve been with a dying person at the last, it is brutal a lot of the time.
None of our business.
They are suppose to be historically figures. Instead of lying about qe2 tge press should just say ” we haven’t been briefed”. The press is trying to create a “royal family”. That’s not what the commonwealth pays for.
Yeah, truly, it’s not that hard not to lie.
QEII and Phillip suffered various ailments during their last couple of years (Covid included), which forced them pretty much to keep separate lives. Phillip ended up looking like a living corpse (bless him) and I doubt he had much of an autonomy or mental soundness for most of the time. QEII’s mind seemed ok, but we now know she was in pain and reduced mobility during her last months. I think saying she was there at the end is a white lie, meaning that she’d been there had some sort of agony process given her time to arrive by his side. Apparently, he was his usual self and just shut down. It’s not QEII’s fault.
It would be amazing if in 100 years time documentation is released to indicate Penny was actually his daughter not lover. She was apparently shipped off to schools in Switzerland at a very young age, which is remarkable for the daughter of a northern butcher who left school at 15. And was subsequently offered prime London sites to start a restaurant business.
Would certainly make sense that all the family and the Queen welcomed her warmly to all public and private occasions.
lol. Come on. The man had other children he wasn’t living with. He decided to live with his illegitimate daughter? He is a rich, powerful man. The simple answer is he just got a younger mistress because he had an understanding with his wife. She was accepted the same way Rose was, because that is what BRF does. As long as you shut your mouth, they don’t care about affairs and make the wife walk with the mistress in public in order to keep rumors at bay. Camilla & Diana, QE2 & Penny, Kate & Rose. It is all the same story.
Penny was Charles girlfriend first so there is no way she was Philips daughter. Then she married Mountbattens grandson who was Philips first cousin once removed. That would make her the second cousin of her husband.
@Cairidh – It was Amanda Knatchbull who was Charles’s girlfriend. Amanda Knatchbull was a granddaughter of Earl Mountbatten and Charles’s second cousin.
They have to decided are they celebrities or historical figures! Historical figures shouldn’t be airbrushed and lied on to the point we don’t have an inkling of what’s real. Someone made that qe2 and Philip picture. I don’t think that’s Philips body.
I was just on a Kate fans website. The fan tries to look impartial. She has a variety of pictures. Looking through George’s pictures it dawns on me I don’t know how he looks. Ever since everyone started calling him Louie Anderson his pictures have been deeply edited. I think she had a natural picture of him. His teeth looked completely different. Kate is morphed into different people depending on what she is wearing.
Philip philandered the entire time they were married. You don’t think the gentlemen’s club he co-founded was a bible study, do you?
Elizabeth put up with it for a while since she was utterly besotted. But once his boyish looks faded, the bloom was off the rose, and the marriage was just for show.
Its easy to excuse her not being in the room with him when he died, given her own age and frail health, but it is my understanding they weren’t even living in the same castle..
@Monlette – In 2008 I stayed in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which had been the British High Commissioner’s residence. QEII and Prince Philip had once stayed there when they were on a State Visit to Malaysia. We were given a guided tour of the property and shown the rooms where Liz and Phil stayed. They were down the corridor from each other. They had had separate bedrooms for a very long time and I’m not surprised QEII was not at Philip’s bedside when he died. Theirs was a marriage in name only, for sure. When Philip retired from royal duties in 2017 he went to live at Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate where it is said he received frequent visits from Penny Knatchbull, his “friend and confidante” (officially his carriage-driving partner). Penny Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, was the wife of Norton Knatchbull, the grandson of Earl Mountbatten, Philip’s uncle. Norton’s sister, Amanda, had dated Prince Charles prior to his marriage to Diana. Penny was allowed to attend Prince Philip’s funeral but was made to sit at the back of the church, which I found rather sad. She seemed to be ignored by the rest of the Royal Family.
The lying is so deep seated that anything coming from the RF is a lie 24/7.
He died with his mistress Lady Penny.
She was at his funeral during Covid lockdown and was one of the few people invited
First, he writes, ‘I don’t believe she was’, but then the rest of it is stated as though it were fact. You can’t believe anything written about late QEII, not a doggone thing.