A new revelation about Queen Elizabeth has been revealed by a former royal staff member. In his new memoir, The Royal Insider
, former royal butler and footman Paul Burrell made the claim that Queen Elizabeth was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer shortly before her death.
Burrell wrote that Queen Elizabeth was diagnosed “just a few months” after Prince Philip’s passing in 2021. The queen kept the diagnosis secret, and didn’t allow the news to leave her “circle of trust.”
“As far as the family was concerned, everything was fine, but the doctors’ prognosis gave her only until Christmas,” Burrell wrote. “The Queen’s response was, ‘Well, that’s a shame, because next year is my Platinum Jubilee year and I’d quite like to have seen that. Can you keep me alive for that?’”
The Royal Insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana
For her treatment, Queen Elizabeth “endured blood transfusions and scrupulously followed doctors’ orders, giving up her much-loved gin and tonics, gin and Dubonnets and martini.” As a healthy substitution, she drank “apple juice (and tomato juice on a Sunday as a treat) to help extend her life.”
Burrell noted that her doctors “kept her alive to witness this landmark in her reign,” but deep inside, the monarch “knew through it all that she was dying.”
The Queen had only told members of the royal family for “the final few months,” she was alive. “She had intentionally kept them out of the loop as she didn’t want them to worry,” the footman wrote.
However, one worry did peak in her mind during her final days. “She was also concerned that her illness might open the door to a regency,” Burrell claims. “This was abhorrent to her. She wanted to rule to the end and definitely did not want to be a sick Queen with a regent ruling.”
Queen Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022. Two years after her death, her son King Charles and her granddaughter-in-law Kate Middleton announced their cancer diagnoses. The Princess of Wales announced her remission in January 2025, while Charles is still undergoing treatment.
Royal insider Camilla Tominey previously reported that King Charles’ cancer is incurable after he allegedly refused treatment. “The talk now is that he may die ‘with’ cancer, but not ‘of’ cancer following a rigorous treatment program,” she revealed in The Telegraph. She also confirmed that King Charles’ 80th birthday plans in 2028 are “tentative” due to his ailing health.