Robert Jobson’s new royal biography is Catherine, The Princess Of Wales. Jobson’s book was excerpted in the Mail, and from what I’ve seen, the excerpts have landed poorly all around. Royalists are mad that Jobson’s narrative is so Sussex-focused and so uncomplimentary to the Waleses, and Sussex people find it hilarious that Jobson is trying to push those narratives. Because I’ve been doing this for years, I once again have to point out that Jobson wrote a biography of Prince William a few years ago which got the same reaction – it was basically a hit job on William from sources deep within King Charles and Queen Camilla’s camp, at least that’s how it read to me. Jobson’s Huevo biography was largely buried too. Anyway, this excerpt is all about how dear Catherine wanted to move to Windsor specifically because Queen Elizabeth was doing so poorly, health-wise.
The death of her beloved Philip hit the late Queen very hard. She’d also lost several close friends, who’d died in quick succession around the same time, and as a result felt increasingly isolated. In her final years, she took to inviting former members of her staff to come to visit her in her private apartments to talk about the old times. One of them revealed later: ‘She told me she didn’t know anybody [her staff and servants] any more.’
The brightest light on her increasingly limited horizon was regular visits and several phone calls a week from her grandson William, which brought them closer than ever.
Catherine had instantly grasped that it was important for her husband to be geographically closer to his grandmother in her final months, so they’d decided to move early to Adelaide Cottage, a four-bedroom house close to the castle on the Windsor estate. This made a real difference.
‘[Prince William] knew his time with his grandmother was precious and he is delighted they, as a couple, made that decision,’ said one aide.
Behind the scenes, Queen Elizabeth was feeling terribly frail. Her final appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony, as the finale to the Platinum Jubilee, took real courage as she was in constant pain from a form of myeloma, a bone-marrow cancer.
Her health deteriorated rapidly over the following three months. She struggled terribly with failing eyesight, and had difficulty even lifting a teapot to fill her cup.
‘Her Majesty could hardly see and just didn’t have the strength,’ a source close to the late Queen said. ‘She would get terribly frustrated as she hated causing a mess, pouring it over the tray. She asked for a smaller pot and would get frustrated when the staff forgot and brought the big one.’
She knew she was dying. But as her strength ebbed away, it brought her immense comfort to know the monarchy could be entrusted to the next two generations.
Keep in mind, William and Kate officially moved into Adelaide Cottage at the last minute, kicking and screaming, in late August 2022, and QEII died in Scotland just a couple of weeks later. The “kicking and screaming” part is because they wanted (or rather, Kate wanted) to be given a much grander home on the Windsor property but she and the kids were shuffled off to Adelaide just days before the kids started their school term. This narrative about “William and Kate were physically closer to QEII in the months before her death” is BS. They were in Norfolk, QEII was in Scotland. Also: the whole rationale behind the Waleses move to Windsor was NOT “they want to be closer to QEII” back in 2021-22. The rationale was “Kate wants to be closer to her parents” and “Kate wants to send the kids to a school outside of London” and “Kate and William believed they would be given Windsor Castle when QEII died.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Kensington Palace.