In 2022, less than three months after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, a “royal family friend” named Gyles Brandreth wrote and published Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait. He was the first one to put a name to QEII’s suffering in the final year of her life. Brandreth reported that QEII 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.” As a reminder, no one at the palace and no one around QEII would disclose anything to do with QEII’s health in the final year. People were given vague explanations like “mobility issues” and “it hurts her to stand.” They made QEII stand to meet Liz Truss and QEII was dead within a few days. It was awful. Well, anyway, Boris Johnson apparently confirms the diagnosis in his memoir.
Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims that Queen Elizabeth had “a form of bone cancer” in the last years of her life.
Johnson, 60, makes the claim in his upcoming memoir Unleashed, which will be published in the U.K. on Oct. 10 and released in the U.S. on Oct. 22. In an excerpt serialized in the Daily Mail on Sept. 28, Johnson reflected on his final meeting with the Queen at Balmoral Castle in September 2022, two days before she died at age 96.
“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,” Johnson writes in Unleashed.
The former mayor of London adds that the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, said, “‘She’s gone down quite a bit over the summer,’ ” before Johnson entered his outgoing audience as prime minister with her.
This marks the first time a senior British politician has spoken about her possible cause of death, which was officially listed as “old age” on her death certificate. The revelation is highly unusual in British public life. The queen’s health was a closely-guarded secret during her reign, and information about meetings between the prime minister and monarch are usually kept confidential.
Recalling his final meeting with Queen Elizabeth, Johnson said she “seemed pale and more stooped, and she had dark bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from drips or injections.” But, he said, the monarch’s mood was “completely unimpaired by her illness, and from time to time in our conversation she still flashed that great white smile in its sudden mood-lifting beauty.”
He said the late queen knew “all summer that she was going, but was determined to hang on and do her last duty” by seeing the transfer of power from Johnson to his successor Liz Truss.
“I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer.” This confirms, to me, the timeline which I put together. Prince Philip died in April 2021. QEII was in remarkably good form after his death, attending horse shows and socializing. Then something fell apart in October 2021 – QEII suddenly wasn’t well enough to travel, she had to cancel some events at the last minute, and she went to the hospital overnight and the palace covered it up. I don’t think she was diagnosed with cancer until months after Philip passed. I also think that secretive hospitalization in the fall of 2021 was much more serious than they let on. I suspect QEII and the courtiers just wanted her to get through the Jubbly in June 2022, and she rallied for that before she let go.
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reunited with Prince William and Kate Middleton for the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London on Monday Pictured: Meghan Markle BACKGRID USA 9 MARCH 2020 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Boris is talking bc he has a new book he’s trying to sell.
Hard. Pass.
My late Father had Multiple Myeloma. You can hold it back IF it’s caught early enough with a bone marrow transplant which puts you into remission. Dad was too late for that, you can have chemotherapy which will give you a few more months if you are at Stage IV (he had a complicating factor so we didn’t) but either way you are immunocompromised – which would explain HMS Bubble.
Trust Boris to take advantage of information given to him because of his position as PM to help sell his book.
And trust the entire UK establishment to hold on to information until they can make money off it by putting it into a book.
@harpervalleypta, Ugh just like all the former Trump cabinet, etc. staffers – they support him through his demolishing democracy, and then as soon as they’re kicked out (or his presidency ended), they write their tell-all “Trump did so many illegal bad things!”
Why didn’t y’all speak up at the time and maybe try to stop it?!
Instead, they save the stories of corruption & deception to further profit off of them. They are all complicit.
IKR? All the adjacent can make money of the royal family, including Camzilla’s and Kate’s families. But Harry can never tell his own story and especially neither can Meghan.
Hmmmm so the PM knew a year before we all did that something was seriously wrong with QEII. It definitely puts a different light on how her eldest son and his witch of a wife managed to “persuade” QEII to upgrade Camilla to QC. No wonder they all got “twitchy” when Harry told the world he wanted to make sure she had the right people around her. Those vile people saw an opportunity to take advantage of a frail old woman and exploited her for all it was worth.
Possibly, a little more complicated than that. I suspect there were several “quid pro quos” that went on in TQ’s last year or two. She was old and frail, but still had things they wanted, and after a lifetime among the vultures, knew her audience. One item previously mentioned here is some agreement about taking care of Andrew in future, and whether that was traded for the QC statement. But I’ve also wondered what went on for TQ to be able to send her security for Harry and Meghan when they came for the Jubbly, and particularly, to allow their solo entrance into the church. That seemed highly unusual given circumstances at the time. With Young as her PS, I question if TQ had the ability to make that happen by herself, without having also agreed to something else.
@Windyriver – I’ve always been in two minds about the “solo entrance.” I can remember thinking at the time is this meant to be a “walk of shame” after being greeted by a barrage of boos. There’s no doubt it was a deliberate act to give them their own spotlight but, the cynic in me always wondered if “they” (the men in grey along with KCIII and William) believed their smear campaign would produce a tsunami of public hatred towards H&M. I also think that’s why Kate looked round to see them in the church. I think she was hoping they would be looking totally crest fallen. Instead it was the PM who received the boos while H&M were cheered when the public saw them and only received a smattering of boos (orchestrated I believe by the media) when they left.
@LauraD I think both things can be true. I think QEII arranged for their solo entrance and I think the rest of the family (i.e. Charles and William) allowed it because they anticipated a negative reaction from the crowd.
Well, IMO Kate would look around for Meghan under any circumstances, so I wouldn’t consider that indicative of anything!
As for the rest, I don’t know. It’s taking a big chance to set something like that up just in the hope of them being humiliated. By that time, they’d already done the Oprah interview, so people had an alternate, non-palace/media version of what happened, and very possibly they’d be cheered. Kate may have looked around, but what was curious was, Will didn’t seem bothered at all. He definitely knew to expect it. Which leads to another question, had Charles already promised to make him POW as soon as TQ passed (which he did). So many potential devious theories, one just as twisted as another.
ETA: Just saw Becks1 comment, agree, it could easily have been a twofer.
Agree with you about Kate! 😆
Yes, I think Becks1 had it right; it’s a “twofer.” Although the Oprah interview was well received globally, it didn’t stop the UK press from having a field day and tearing into H&M with a vengeance. We know the palaces place great store in what the media say so, in their rarefied world the papers were printing what the country was saying as a whole. Then add in to the mix the boot licking courtiers and the rest of the “yes men/women” who they surround themselves with, then of course H&M were going to get booed.
If I remember rightly as soon as QEII passed KP changed their titles to Cornwall on Twitter (and quite rightly were dragged all over Twitter for doing so.) I don’t believe they knew they were getting the Wales title as I think (like many others) KCIII only gave them that title to try and get the lazy buggers to do some work. There was also the Diana association which even though she’s gone Kate’s done zilch to make people think of anyone-else other than Diana as the true POW. However, in saying all that who really knows what goes on in the minds of those scheming deviants?
I had forgotten about Kate turning around at the church and pulling a face. She was wearing yellow? Another example of the future queen behaving poorly in a church. Maybe she was hoping to hear boos as they walked down? It’s always wild to me how William can be fairly non-reactive in public. And yet very reactive when he or his friends call up Sykes.
Laura, the Daily Excess was certainly encouraging their readers to boo the Sussexes.
I believe that Betty gladly traded that favor in exchange for protecting her favorite son. Little did she know that Charles and Camzilla would toss aside any agreement, once she kicked the bucket.
Another question I had:
Could this cancer have fast tracked itself and gone into overdrive, after the Queen caught Covid? Because that is A Thing that numerous research papers have confirmed can happen, both with new incidences of cancer as well as cancers “in remission” at time of infection.
BBC has an article on their website- Covid: Charles met Queen two days before testing positive.
The article is dated to 10 February 2022.
Either way, if Chuck knew his mummy had cancer already, keeping her Covid-free should have been PARAMOUNT. He never wore a mask around her that anyone can tell…and he clearly didn’t follow any “exposure risk isolation period protocol” – which he, as one of the wealthiest men in Britain, could certainly have afforded to do…
Ergh, it’s called Multiple Myeloma, its a chronic (incurable) bone marrow cancer that CAN affect your bones (when it progresses it starts to dissolve chunks out of your bones – called lytic lesions). It IS rare, generally diagnosed in people over the age of 70. It’s more of a blood cancer in that you regularly get blood draws to check your current status. Although a bone marrow biopsy is needed to absolutely diagnose it and its type (low risk, high risk, etc). Most people – 85% have the standard/low risk and die WITH it not OF it. Especially at the Queen’s age, putting ‘died of old age’ on her death certificate is probably accurate.
I was diagnosed with this 4+ years ago. Once it progresses (and I was at end stage at diagnosis), it can affect your bones, your kidneys and, absolutely your energy. There are plenty of old and new chemo treatments, stem cell transplant, Car-T cell therapy, but I doubt she wanted anything to do with those grueling treatments, not at her age, not as a widow, not with her visibility.
But Bojo couldn’t be bothered to fact check what he overheard, ask more details, anything. BTW, Bruce Springsteen’s wife has this, as did Colin Powell and a surprising number of other well known people.
How do you know it was myeloma she had and not the more common sarcoma type of bone cancer?
I don’t – let’s hope only she and her doctors knew for certain. Prior reporting on this said it was myeloma, so I was just adding detail to what THAT cancer is since even my friends and family confuse it with ‘bone cancer’. It’s a chronic immune system cancer.
Brandeth (whoever that is) reported it to be myeloma. Sarcomas are rarer and harder to hide ftom the public, whereas plasma cell myeloma is much more common and easier to treat in terms of symptoms (eg, transfusions for anemia).
Don’t know who Brandeth is either. Of course, could have been any type of cancer or none or who knows with the way all the people involved lie.
My father had Multiple Myeloma, and died of kidney failure as a result. Hastened on by having only one kidney (he lost one to renal cell carcinoma). It affected his spine, and he was unable to walk much. Tom Brokaw is another of the famous people who have this disease.
As was Peter Boyle.
RMS, I’m so very sorry you’re having to deal with this diagnosis.
@RMS, Thanks for bringing some facts into the discussion — it only can only help when a light is shone on the specific condition involved. Myeloma is more clear than ‘some form of bone cancer’ or the ridiculously vague ‘cancerous cells were found’.
My father died of MM 40 years ago when there were basically no treatments available. Hope you continue to do ok.
The fact is the press nor the Palace pushed back when Gyles wrote about the Queen’s health in his book. So it was true. As a side note, the non-response to this revelation when compared to Spare highlights the hypocrisy of the press and the Royal Family. I’ve always believed that the Palace worked the Queen to her death and that she was a victim of elder abuse.
She attended. Didn’t make her own meals, do laundry, yard work, clean house, pay bills, …she lived like a Queen.
@Andrea: All that is true but in her last years instead of her resting she was put out on display and made to continue to work. Those pictures of her with those horses and with her coat buttoned up wrong were signs that she wasn’t being taken care of in the best way. Harry said as much after he and Meghan went to see her in 2022.
Towards the end she couldn’t move…at one meeting with a visiting dignitary, He was waiting for her to move closer to shake hands and she said ,”I can’t move” and he then moved closer to her. It was at that moment l knew her mobility issues were serious and later we learnt that she’s was being moved around in a wheelchair. all this was hidden from the public.
“I’ve always believed that the Palace worked the Queen to her death and that she was a victim of elder abuse.”
Hard agree.
I would love to be “worked to death” like that, as opposed to being worked to death like the peasants. People who shouldn’t have to work (in countries as rich as those in North America and Europe) literally work until they drop. And without the attendants, cooks, maids, etc.
QEII should have had more rest and better care in her illness. Lying to the public about her condition to make her being trotted out and used for other people’s agendas seem reasonable, letting her be photographed unkempt in misbuttoned coats or holding the reins of horses she didn’t have the wherewithal to control, Andrew walking her into church, Charles hiding behind her skirts to remove Consort for Cam, trying to deny and control the Sussexes access to her was not what a sick woman deserves. To be made to work through illness and discomfort, no matter how ‘soft’ one believes the work to be with attendants, cooks and maids is not fair or right.
She had tunnel vision when it came to duty. She intended to work until her dying breath and she did.
QEII took her sense of duty seriously and willingly but that didn’t give people around her the right to manipulate her public image to serve their own ends and use her gravitas to push through their own agendas as well as allowing her to be photographed looking out of sorts.
Even queens have people committing elder abuse around them. To think she wasn’t being used and abused by some of those power-hungry weasels is unlikely.
@Amy Bee, @Interested Gawker – Tend to agree. Despite Betty’s clear devotion to duty, and possible lack of faith in Chuck being able to do the job, her physical state left her vulnerable to predations by courtiers and family members who felt no compunction whatsoever about freely substituting themselves in her stead, and callously using her for their own perceived benefit. If she blindly continued working to avoid tax implications of abdicating – that’s just sad, mostly for her subjects, but totally on brand for most rich people.
@Mimi – Also agree that frail old peasants shouldn’t be worked to death, or taken advantage of either.
Glad that Harry and Meghan were able to see her with Archie and Lili before she died.
@Amy Bee – I totally agree. I can remember a picture of her posted on this forum and was shocked at how scruffy she looked. I may not have liked a lot of what she let happen under her watch but, she always dressed the part. To allow her to look so untidy for a public appearance should have been a warning sign but, by then (I would imagine) her eldest son and his poisonous wife had the toxic British media on speed dial with stories about the “atrocities” Meghan was committing. /s
She also had the supposed “friend” AK to help her dress. Shows that everyone around her was just out for what they could get.
She absolutely had the option to abdicate like other older European monarchs have done. There were lots of leaks in the years leading up to her death that this was presented as an option by the Government and royal household. She chose not to because she actually believed in all that royal blood stuff like ALL other royals.
The jubbly served all their purposes and the tax implications of abdication were something they wanted to avoid.
Not abdicating and allowing a shadow regency still didn’t mean she deserved to be treated poorly and may have been the only way to avoid being treated worse.
When she first became Queen she promised that she would do the job until the day she died.
I feel like there were a lot of times that the queen could have stepped in. Said something about the racism in the papers. Ordered the heirs to stop leaking and planting stories. But would Charles and William have listened at that point? And then there’s Edward Young who seemed more like Charles’ man than hers. So who knows. But I appreciate that she held out for the jubilee, when she gave Harry and Meghan full security and that special entrance into the church. She met Lili and Archie.
Edward Young was Charles’ man. It was that Christopher something that the Queen knew and trusted and Charles pushed him out. How awful it must have been for her to be surrounded in her last years by snakes, with her son being the chief snake.
Charles may have been the least of what she had to deal with from family.
Christopher Geidt was the last good, honourable, and very strong PS, who should never have been forced out. Had he remained in post things would have been very different.
Don’t think it would have made much difference if she’d said something about the racism and the leaking, that would just be a drop in the bucket. And with Charles’ man Young in the important role of her PS she was unlikely to be able to. It wasn’t just what Charles and William were doing BTS – it was, and still is, also about what’s advantageous for the media. They’re going to continue whatever makes money/benefits them the most. It’s clear they’ll make up their own stories to publish, it’s not all from leaks. I doubt Charles himself could stop it now if he wanted to. He helped create a monster and he’s caught too.
Am also curious: 1) how much of what was being written about the Sussexes TQ actually got to see; and 2) if Harry told her at some point not to worry about it, they’d handle it. That’s what I’d do. Anyway, in retrospect, the way Harry and Meghan were treated at the Jubbly, as obviously valued members of the family, was her statement.
@MsIam – You’re thinking of Christopher Geidt. Young had been Deputy PS.
I think Edward Young is primarily who Harry meant when he made the comment about making sure she had the right people around her. And we know how much he manipulated what she (QEII) knew and what she thought she could do about it.
She couldn’t do anything, they held Andrew’s issues over her head.
I don’t think it’s safe to believe anything this man writes… he has a very well paved track record of lies. Definitely not an author I would waste my time reading.
@Neeve I’m not so sure! I’ve been thinking about this and it’s coming across to me that Johnson is taking a swipe at the BRF for not supporting him over the Downing Street parties (after all Camilla was STRONGLY rumoured to have attended one of them.) Yes, he’s trying to sell a book but, telling the world that he (and BP – probably QEII) would have liked Harry to stay. Now he’s letting us know how ill QEII was whilst still managing to perform her duties isn’t making KCIII and (especially) Kate look very good at all.
Yes, I’ve been getting the same impression, too.
That makes a lot of sense actually. None of the stories have the royals looking good. More like weak and secretive.
How on earth is he allowed to disclose this in his book? Aren’t their NDA’s for this stuff if not there should be.
I think they only make the peasants sign those. That may change now, lol.
Yes the Queen had something seriously wrong with her. There was a picture of her sitting down in People magazine with bruises all over her legs showing through her stockings. And take a look at her hands in her picture with Liz Truss, bruises like she has had IVs.
And when they could they force her out like a show pony. Charles forced his mother to make his mistress Queen Consort Courtesan while she was sick and dying. No wonder Harry refuses to allow Meghan and their babies back in the U.K. that man would have no issue with allowing them to be hurt or worse. What a fucking monster.
If you look carefully at the picture where she is alone, standing up with the cane, you can see the blues on her hand.
To me those are the marks of the treatments she was undergoing.
There were reports from the evening of 7 September 2022, HM was in good form despite her medical conditions. Some people experience a burst of energy a day or two prior to death.
I do believe HM held on to be around for the jubilee and I also believe she wanted to meet the new PM.
Reading thru these comments reminds me of what a pit of vipers all of Royalty can be, not much different vs. King Henrys days.
Chuck had best stay ahead of Cam. If Chuck goes before Cam, William is in for a fight!
Cam aint going quietly.
What a depressing bunch of Tools.
Diana was the best of them. She did some good works in spite of them.
@chatter – it’s nice thought but, seriously what can she do? William has an heir and two spares. Harry is safe in California with two children who are also in the line of succession. All Camilla has is the position which she loses as soon as Charles passes. When William comes to the throne he’ll have all the power. She might be able to throw a few shots from the sidelines but, William will be king and he will be protected by the establishment. Even if for some reason he can’t be protected then George will be king (and have a regent if he’s too young.) Camilla is not of royal blood so, she wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near him. I think if she outlives KCIII she’ll just go quietly because I doubt she wants to risk the ire of a William the Tyrant king.
Attaching herself to the Rocksavages looks like she is not about to go quietly during William’s reign. Cam’s moves have only ever been about self preservation and a cornered Cam is possibly more dangerous than an ambitious one.
Maybe she will write a book.
It’ll be kind of interesting to see how Camilla and William possibly go at it thru the press. It’ll be prob be gross.
If she has any common sense she will go and live in the house she already owns and leave William to get on with it.
Interested Gawker and Equality are both right; “a cornered Cam is possibly more dangerous” plus ” maybe she will write a book”. One thought leads to the other. If cornered, threatening a book may be the only thing she has to hold over all their heads.
QE2 saw the waste of space that she was leaving behind, that’s why she worked up to her last day.
Yes
Perhaps if she had been in good health, she might have been able to control William during the “summit” about Harry. But it turned out it would have been miserable for Harry and Meghan to stay and be there when William became King.
Everyone knew. Lady C, that Collin something told her followers long before her death that Queen had bone cancer. So Boris isn’t the first person. The rota knew, they told their friends, everybody knew. If it was a myeloma, poor woman, should have been in a hospice, not be paraded in a balcony.