As an American, I know I have no room to talk at this point, but it’s wild to see how little outrage there is about heads of state refusing to disclose their serious medical situations. Currently, Americans have never been told what’s wrong with Donald Trump – we’re only left to surmise that he’s deeply unwell and that everyone around him seems to treat him like a dementia-addled madman who has the nuclear codes. Well, back in Queen Elizabeth II’s final years, no one around her thought to inform the public of what was ailing her as well. That would have ruined the fun of “blaming QEII’s death on Prince Harry and Meghan.” It was only after QEII passed away at the age of 96 that biographer Gyles Brandreth suddenly claimed that QEII had suffered a form of bone marrow cancer in her final year. Well, now it turns out that the palace was also hiding Prince Philip’s cancer diagnosis as well. Hugo Vickers claims that Philip was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2013. While Philip was not the head of state, it’s utterly bizarre that no one thought to publicly disclose this at any time.

Prince Philip lived with pancreatic cancer for nearly eight years before his death, a major new book reveals. In Queen Elizabeth II, serialised exclusively in the Mail on Sunday, biographer Hugo Vickers discloses that the then Duke of Edinburgh was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in June 2013 during an 11-day stay in hospital.

He died at Windsor Castle in April 2021, two months before his 100th birthday, with ‘old age’ listed on his death certificate.

On the last night of his life, Prince Philip gave nurses the slip and shuffled along a corridor at the castle on his Zimmer frame before pouring himself a beer and drinking it in the Oak Room, a sitting room, Vickers reveals.

He added: ‘The following morning, he got up, had a bath, said he did not feel well and quietly slipped away. By this point, he had lived with pancreatic cancer for nearly eight years – far longer than the usual survival time from diagnosis.’

Queen Elizabeth was not there when her husband of 73 years died and was said to have been upset that ‘as so often in life, he left without saying goodbye’.

Philip was hospitalised in December 2011 for a blocked coronary artery, and in 2013 was treated at the private London Clinic in Marylebone.

Doctors detected a shadow on his pancreas, and ‘cut him right across his stomach’ for exploratory surgery. ‘The verdict was inoperable pancreatic cancer,’ Vickers writes. Four years later, he stepped down from royal duties.

Vickers says that in 2019 there were ‘such serious rumours’ about Philip’s health that plans were drawn up to postpone the general election if he died.

‘But then [he] perked up… Someone said he was being public-spirited and making an effort to survive so as not to upset the election.’

[From The Daily Mail]

While it was known circa 2016-2017 that Philip was in poor health, most people attributed it to his age, given he was already in his 90s (he was 99 when he passed). That’s when he retired from public life as well, in 2017, and he was shuffled off to Wood Farm where Penelope Knatchbull was his “constant companion” and she was the one who looked after him. Then the pandemic happened and they made Philip move to Windsor Castle, where he was miserable. Anyway, what is the rationale for refusing to disclose Philip’s cancer diagnosis? They can’t argue “well, he wasn’t the head of state” because they also refused to disclose the head of state’s cancer diagnosis too! Additionally, Hugo Vickers is still trying to blame Harry and Meghan for Philip’s death, while also saying “well, the poor man had pancreatic cancer for eight years too.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.