Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson violated royal protocol and claimed in a memoir that Queen Elizabeth II suffered from bone cancer before her death.
In the book, which will be released on October 10, Johnson recalls the monarch’s last days in Balmoral, Scotland.
The prime minister formally resigned just two days before Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022, and in the years since, there has been heavy speculation about the causes of 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 moment she might go into a decline,” he wrote in an excerpt released by the Daily Mail.
Johnson’s account is the first public indication by a former senior British government official of what the cause of the queen’s death might have been. On the monarch’s death certificate, the cause of death was recorded as “old age”.
Johnson is not the first prime minister to look back on his life, time in office and interactions with the late queen in an autobiography. Former British leaders Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron did this, but only with generic reports and without the same level of detail described by Johnson.
Buckingham Palace has a policy of not commenting on published books about the royal family and, as such, has not confirmed or denied Johnson’s claims.
The former prime minister, who held the role between 2019 and 2022, remembers traveling to the royal residence of Balmoral for the usual exit and resignation hearing. Upon arrival, he was greeted by the Queen’s private secretary, Edward Young, who indicated that the monarch’s health had deteriorated over the summer.
“She looked pale and stooped, and had dark bruises on her hands and wrists, probably from injections,” he wrote.
“But her mind – as Edward had also said – had not been affected by the illness, and from time to time in our conversation she still gave that big, mood-lifting white smile.”
Johnson described the prime minister’s weekly audiences with the monarch as “a privilege” and “a balm.”
“She radiated an ethic of service, patience and leadership that you truly felt if necessary, you would die for her,” he continued. “This may seem strange to some people (and totally obvious to many others), but this loyalty, however primitive it may seem, is still at the heart of our system”, he added.
“You need someone kind and wise, and above politics, to embody what is good about our country. She did this job brilliantly,” he wrote.
The late Queen never shared private medical details with the public. Real advisors also state that family members have the same right to medical privacy as anyone else.
King Charles III and Princess of Wales Kate Middleton have turned the page and been more open about their health. The two shared details about their own cancer diagnoses.
However, in both cases, they chose not to disclose the specific form of cancer each has been battling.
This content was originally published in Boris Johnson says in book that Queen Elizabeth II had bone cancer on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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