This is what former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims in his soon-to-be-published memoirs Queen Elizabeth II was diagnosed with bone cancer before her death in September 2022 at the age of 96. His claim marks a significant break with royal protocol between the Prime Minister’s Office and Buckingham Palace, under which the United Kingdom’s elected leaders generally keep the royal family’s private affairs to themselves. .
Johnson makes this claim in his upcoming memoir, “Unleashed,” due out later in October. An extract from the book, containing alleged details of the late queen’s health, was published this week in Johnson’s regular column for the Daily Mail newspaper.
No senior British government official or member of the royal family has previously revealed any details about the late queen’s cause of death. An official death certificate published a week after Queen Elizabeth’s death listed the cause of death as “old age.”
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“I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were concerned that she might suffer a sharp decline at any time,” Johnson says in his book. “She appeared pale and more stooped, and she had dark bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from IVs or injections.”
Although he said the Queen appeared to be ill, Johnson said she was still sharp during his last meeting with her.
“Her mind… was completely unaffected,” he writes. “She still showed that big white smile in its sudden mood-lifting beauty.”
Johnson who was Prime Minister of Great Britain between 2019 and 2022 met Elizabeth at her Scottish residence, Balmoral Castle, just days before she died, to hand her his formal resignation as leader of the country.
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Buckingham Palace declined to comment when asked by CBS News about Johnson’s claim. The palace generally does not comment on claims about the private lives of members of the royal family in books or print media.
While Johnson’s comments break with the long tradition of British prime ministers not commenting publicly on what is said during private meetings with members of the royal family, they are not entirely unprecedented.
In 2014, then Prime Minister David Cameron apologized to Queen Elizabeth for making public details of a private conversation with her about the results of a referendum in which the Scots rejected this the idea of Scotland’s secession from Great Britain to become an independent state.
Cameron was heard telling former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg that the monarch seemed relieved that Scots had voted to stay in Britain, suggesting the late queen had “crossed the line” after the final results “.
Former British leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have also provided some details of the conversations and interactions they had with Queen Elizabeth in books about their time in office.
Elizabeth’s first son, who became King Charles III after her death, broke with long-standing precedent of not revealing personal royal health news earlier this year when Buckingham Palace revealed that he being treated for canceralthough the palace has not revealed what type of cancer he is being treated for.
A month after the revelation about the monarch’s health problems, his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, decided revealed her own cancer diagnosis. Princess Kate said in September that she had completed her treatment, but that her “road to recovery” would be long.
