Queen Elizabeth Had 'A Form of Bone Cancer' Before Her Death, Boris Johnson Writes in New Memoir
"Her doctors were worried that at any time she could enter a sharp decline," the former prime minister writes about the late Queen in his memoir 'Unleashed'
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.
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment.
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(From left) Lt. Col. Tom White, Sir Edward Young and then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Sept. 6, 2022.The politician was prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022 and the 14th prime minister of Queen Elizabeth's record-breaking reign. On Sept. 6, 2022, he traveled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the royal family's summer sanctuary, to formally resign from his post as the Queen appointed Liz Truss as the U.K.'s new prime minister.
Truss made history in the move, becoming the first prime minister appointed in Scotland instead of England. At the time, a source told PEOPLE the decision was made to have the audience at Balmoral to provide certainty for schedules amid the Queen's ongoing mobility issues.
While Johnson and his wife, Carrie, were photographed shaking hands with Young and Queen Elizabeth’s equerry Lt. Col. Tom White (who now works for Kate Middleton) as they arrived for his audience at the castle, no photos of him with the sovereign on Sept. 6 were released to the public.
Related: Boris Johnson's Wife Shares Note She Received from Queen Elizabeth's Team to Avoid Fashion Clash
Johnson writes in Unleashed that the Queen greeted him with, "'Good morning, Prime Minister' " and as they sat on opposite couches, "I could see at once what Edward meant."
"She seemed pale and more stooped, and she had dark bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from drips or injections," he writes. He adds that the monarch's mind was "completely unimpaired by her illness" and she flashed several bright smiles during their conversation.
Johnson said that the weekly audience meetings he had with the Queen during his years as prime minister — a time period that included Brexit, the COVID pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine — were "more than a privilege."
"It was a balm, a form of free psychotherapy. It was like being at school and being taken out to tea by a much-loved grandmother," he writes.
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Queen Elizabeth at Trooping the Colour on June 2, 2022.Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!
On Sept. 8, 2022, the palace announced that Queen Elizabeth's doctors were "concerned" for her health. Hours later, Buckingham Palace announced her death.
When the Queen's death certificate was released a few weeks later, the document listed her cause of death as "old age."
Johnson and his wife were among the 2,000 guests at Queen Elizabeth's state funeral at Westminster Abbey in London on Sept. 19, 2022.
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Boris Johnson and Carrie Johnson arrive at Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth's state funeral on Sept. 19, 2022.The former prime minister is not the first to claim that the late sovereign had bone cancer before she died. In Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, published in 2023, royal biographer Gyles Brandreth wrote about rumors that Her Majesty had a rare form of myeloma, a 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."
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