Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has stated that Queen Elizabeth II was diagnosed with bone cancer during her last years. Johnson, 60, described his relationship with the late queen in his memoir, Unleashed, detailing his meeting with the queen at Balmoral Castle in September 2022, days before she passed away. .
"I had known for a year or more that she was suffering from some kind of bone cancer and her doctors were worried about the queen's health," Johnson writes in the as-yet-unpublished book. The material in question was taken from "Daily Mail".
Before the meeting, Johnson says the Queen's private secretary, Edward Young, warned her that "her health had deteriorated slightly over the summer". Johnson further says that the queen looked pale and had black marks on her hands and wrists, possibly from her injections and treatments.
"But her mind, as Edward also said, was totally unaffected by her illness and from time to time during our conversation, she still gave a stunning smile," added the former prime minister.
The Queen passed away 2 days after meeting the former Prime Minister, at the age of 96. According to Johnson, the queen knew all summer what was going to happen, but was committed to living and doing her final duties.
Boris Johnson, the former leader of the Conservative Party, resigned from his position as Prime Minister during this very meeting. He was the 14th prime minister in Elizabeth II's 70-year reign.
He also wrote in the book the advice that the queen gave him: "There is no room for bitterness," said the late queen. "Amen to this word. If anyone in politics and life could see as clearly as she does, the world would be a much happier place."
Although Queen Elizabeth II's diagnosis was never made public, Johnson is not the first person to hint that she was diagnosed with cancer during her final years. Royal author Gyles Brandreth also wrote in the book "Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait" in 2022 that she suffered from a rare type of bone cancer, arguing that this was the cause of her health problems, fatigue and weight loss.
The queen's cause of death was given as "due to age" and the palace has never released details on it.
