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Queen Elizabeth and other public figures who kept their serious illnesses a secret
Boris Johnson claims Queen Elizabeth died of bone cancer in new memoir
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Even though public figures spend their lives in the spotlight, many choose to keep life-changing events such as diagnoses from the public. Queen Elizabeth II always did her best to maintain an appearance of good health, and there has been much speculation about her true cause of death. She passed away at the age of 96 in 2022 and her death certificate attributes it to "old age." However, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is now claiming that she was suffering from bone cancer. Johnson served as PM from 2019 to 2022, stepping down amid a scandal just two days before the Queen died. Like many leaders before him, he is now releasing a memoir about his time in office, but 'Unleashed' seems to be breaking the protocol of Britain's other prime ministers who avoided revealing any private information about the Queen.
“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,” he writes in one pre-release excerpt published in the Daily Mail. He recalls visiting the royal residence at Balmoral for a final audience with the Queen following his resignation and claims that her private secretary, Edward Young, informed him that she had deteriorated significantly over the summer. “She seemed pale and more stooped, and she had dark bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from drips or injections,” he wrote. “But her mind – as Edward had also said – was completely unimpaired by her illness, and from time to time in our conversation she still flashed that great white smile in its sudden mood-lifting beauty.” As a policy, Buckingham Palace does not comment on books about the royals, so they will neither confirm nor deny Johnson's assertions.
Check out this gallery to find out which other celebs kept their serious illnesses a secret.
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