Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth has this very strange habit of coming out, a year after the fact, and ruining a perfectly good lie told by the royal family. For months/years, we were told that Queen Elizabeth II merely had balance issues and she was “unwell,” mostly because she was so terribly stressed out because of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Gyles Brandreth was the one to say: actually, she had bone marrow cancer and there was a year-long cover-up over her diagnosis and treatment. No one pushed back on it either, and now the same liars are like “well, of course she had bone marrow cancer, but she was still really mad at Harry and Meghan!”
Currently, the royal lie we’re debunking is “Queen Elizabeth was at Prince Philip’s bedside when he died.” This, to me, is a harmless lie and truly none of our business. Philip was in exceptionally poor health in the last year of his life, and they kept moving the poor man around to be “with” his wife, when really, he wanted to die at Wood Farm with Penny Knatchbull by his side. We were told that he died at Windsor Castle, with his wife by his side. The Telegraph, the Mail, every outlet downright insisted that QEII was “at his bedside.” Another lie, says Gyles Brandreth:
New information is emerging about Queen Elizabeth on the day her husband of over 73 years, Prince Philip, died on April 9, 2021.
Royal biographer Gyles Brandreth claimed that the late Duke of Edinburgh died before the late Queen could reach his bedside, he wrote in his book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait. Though the Queen was reported to have made it to her husband’s bedside when he died that morning, “In fact, I don’t believe she was,” Brandreth wrote.
He continued that “The Duke of Edinburgh had been in a hospital bed, set up in his dressing room at Windsor Castle. That morning, he went to the bathroom, helped by a nurse.”
When he came back, Prince Philip said he felt a little faint and wanted help getting back into bed, Brandreth wrote. “The nurse called the Duke’s valet and the Queen’s page, Paul Whybrew, for help — and he died before the Queen could be called. The Queen wasn’t yet up. And she wasn’t called until after a doctor had come and pronounced the Duke dead.”
The Daily Mirror described Brandreth as a close friend of the late Queen’s who “knew Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth for decades,” reportedly first meeting Queen Elizabeth in 1968 — when he was just 20 years old. Through their shared work at the National Playing Fields Association, Brandreth also knew Prince Philip well.
Yeah, they really lied their asses off about this. They really set the scene that QEII was called into his room and she was at his bedside at the very end. I’m not judging her for not being by Philip’s side, mind you. I’m judging the courtiers for lying about it for years. I actually remember how crazy it was for QEII and Philip to go into the “Covid bubble” and they made Philip leave Wood Farm and everything. He was reportedly really pissed that he was taken to Windsor Castle. Anyway… remember how they said that Charles was at his mother’s bedside at the end, then it came out that he was actually foraging for mushrooms when she died? The truth will eventually come out about all of the Windsors’ lies, at least that’s what I hope.
Years later, we can also safely say that the palace lied about this photo – it’s so clearly edited and manipulated.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Buckingham Palace.