Boris Johnson broke with tradition by writing about the Queen’s health

• Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in his memoirs that Queen Elizabeth II had bone cancer.
• Experts say the royal family has historically kept their medical information private for a variety of reasons.
• King Charles III has tried to use his struggling health to help others.

After Queen Elizabeth died on 8 September 2022, her official cause of death was listed as old age.

But former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in his upcoming memoir, Unleashed, that the monarch had bone cancer before her death, an excerpt published by the Daily Mail revealed. The book will be released in the UK on October 10th and in the US on October 15th.

“I had known for a year or more that she had some form of bone cancer and her doctors were worried that at any moment she might go into a sharp decline,” he wrote in a passage about a visit with The Queen in September 2022. just a few days before her death.

Johnson also said the Queen’s private secretary, Edward Young, told him she “knew all summer she was going”, although this was not made public.

Johnson’s revelation was not entirely new, as royal biographer Gyles Brandreth said the Queen had bone marrow cancer in his 2022 book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the book at the time of its publication.

The late monarch’s decision to keep her health private is not atypical for a royal – but it is unusual for a former prime minister to share intimate details of a monarch’s health.

Buckingham Palace did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Medical privacy in the monarchy

Members of the royal family, especially those on the throne, have often kept their medical affairs private.

Historian, author and royal commentator Carolyn Harris told BI that under the reign of King George VI, privacy was indicative of the larger culture around medicine at the time. Queen Elizabeth II’s father died of lung cancer, which Harris said George himself might not have seen coming.

“For many members of the public, it was a shock that he died when he died, and certainly for his family,” she said, noting that Elizabeth and Prince Philip had just left for a royal tour before his death.

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“This reflects the 1950s when it was thought to be distressing to both the patient and the patient’s family and the public to talk about cancer,” Harris said.

Royal watcher Kristen Meinzer also noted that the media landscape of much of the 1900s was fundamentally friendlier to providing privacy to public figures than our modern era.

“The Queen, in her lifetime, saw a huge change in the media landscape and therefore how information about the Royal Family was disseminated,” she said. “It was easier if the royals wanted to be private about their health 100 years ago, just not to say anything.”

The Queen and Prince Philip continued her father’s legacy of privacy, but Harris said their motivation was likely to be a little more strategic than that of King George VI.

“Both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip always wanted the headlines to focus on the work of the monarchy rather than their individual health conditions,” Harris said.

For example, Harris said that Philip chose to retire from public life in 2017 so that “there wouldn’t be feverish press speculation whenever he was absent from a royal event.” He died in 2021 at the age of 99.

Likewise, the Queen made numerous appearances in her final year despite her declining health, attending her Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. Just two days before she died, she met Liz Truss at Balmoral Castle in Scotland to appoint her as the new prime minister.

Meinzer echoed Harris, noting that the Queen never officially announced her pregnancy.

Changing times

As Harris told BI, Johnson’s details of the Queen’s health in his memoirs are unusual for a former prime minister.

“Conversations between the sovereign and the prime minister are supposed to take place in confidence and that is why there is so much curiosity about the conversations that take place behind the palace doors,” said Harris.

She added that some recent prime ministers have been a bit more candid about their private audiences with the Queen, including David Cameron about the Queen’s reported displeasure.

Harris said medical details about the royal family have traditionally only been revealed in authorized biographies, although King Charles III appears to be taking a more modern approach to his health.

Charles and Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, were both diagnosed with cancer in 2024, and the king, in particular, was keen to reveal that he was undergoing surgery for an enlarged prostate in January.

“I think a lot of King Charles III’s life, both his public and private life, has unfolded in front of the media, so it’s clear that he feels more comfortable engaging with the media,” Harris said.

Harris and Meinzer pointed to the Prince of Wales biography, which the king worked on with Jonathan Dimbleby in the 1990s, as an example of his openness to the media.

“I think King Charles III sees the benefit of the public being aware of the monarch going through these different health procedures,” Harris said.

After he announced he was undergoing a procedure for an enlarged prostate in January, the NHS prostate enlargement site saw a surge in daily visitors.

Although the king’s opening has had a positive impact, and Kate recently revealed that she completed chemotherapy, Meinzer does not think they will reveal intimate details about their treatments in the coming months.

“Maybe eventually there will be another memoir or biography that Charles is collaborating on or that Kate is collaborating on,” Meinzer said. “I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon, but it’s always a possibility.”