Gyles Brandeth has defended claiming the Queen had cancer when she died, saying he ‘didn’t want to upset anyone’.
The 74-year-old author alleged in his new book ‘Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait’ Her Majesty had been suffering from myeloma when she died in September age 96.
Myeloma is a type of bone marrow cancer which does not have a cure, but there are treatments which can help extend life for many years.
On her death certificate, doctors wrote the Queen had died from ‘old age’.
Speaking to HELLO! magazine, Mr Brandeth said: ‘It’s not unusual for a doctor to write “old age” on a death certificate when a person over 80 dies, as happened with the Queen.
‘The Queen’s doctor in Scotland, who had been her physician for 30 years, said they had known about her condition for some time and the end was not unexpected.
‘I really didn’t want to upset anyone, yet if it’s going to be confirmed – and one day it will – at least I, as a reporter, am saying what was out there.’
The former MP was close to the Queen’s late husband, Prince Phillip.
However, he declined to run the book past King Charles before publication.
‘He hasn’t got time and I suspect he would think, “I don’t need to read this, I see my family through my own eyes”,’ Mr Brandeth explained.
The upcoming book also confirmed that only Princess Anne would have been by the Queen’s side in her final moments.
The death certificate, released by National Records of Scotland, noted the time of the her death on September 8 as 3.10pm.
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