A royal insider has revealed the late Queen Elizabeth’s brave and stoic reaction to the news that she had a form of bone marrow cancer, and didn’t have long left to live
11:02, 09 Sep 2025Updated 12:14, 09 Sep 2025
The Queen had a brave four word reaction to learning she was nearing the end of her life, it has been claimed(Image: Getty Images)
The late Queen Elizabeth’s stiff upper lip and ability to carry on with royal duties amid difficulties in her personal life was well known throughout her reign.
And her willingness to continually put duty over her own feelings was one of the many reasons that she enjoyed such high approval ratings with the British public.
Three years on from her death, a royal insider has claimed that even during the very end of her life, she didn’t deviate from this attitude. It has been claimed that when the Queen’s doctors informed her that she had a form of bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma, which meant she did not have long to live, she reacted with her trademark stoicism.
The reported diagnosis is said to have come only weeks after the late Queen lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, in 2021. Showing the upmost bravery in the face of such heartache, she reportedly asked her medical team if they could help her fulfill one poignant request.
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She managed to celebrate with the public one last time after her reported diagnosis(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Paul Burrell, who worked as a butler for the Windsors, claimed that the doctors taking care of the late Queen initially said she probably wouldn’t survive beyond Christmas of 2021.
He has said that the monarch bravely reacted with four simple words, “Well, that’s a shame,” when she received this sad news at age 95. However, despite her understated response, it is said she was shocked to hear that the end of her life was likely so close.
Burrell claims the brave Queen added that it was a pity, “Because next year is my Platinum Jubilee year and I’d quite like to have seen that.”
However, the monarch then asked her doctors what they could do to help her fulfill one last request and celebrate with the public at the upcoming jubilee, Burrell claimed, saying that she asked them, “Can you keep me alive for that?”
Burrell said: “She endured blood transfusions and scrupulously followed doctors’ orders, giving up her much-loved gin and tonics, gin and Dubonnets and martinis, and instead having apple juice (and tomato juice on a Sunday as a treat) to help extend her life.
“They kept her alive to witness this landmark (Platinum Jubilee) in her reign, but she knew through it all that she was dying.”
The late monarch swore those who knew about her health condition to secrecy, and eventually passed away at age 96, months after the doctors’ initial prediction in September 2022.
She spent the final weeks of her life at Balmoral, with even huge swathes of the household staff unaware of how unwell the former monarch really was.
Dad-of-two Mr Burrell, who entered Royal Service at age 18 as a Buckingham Palace footman, describes Queen Elizabeth II’s final days in full in his book The Royal Insider, which is out on Thursday.
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