On the fifth anniversary of the death of prince philipwhich occurred on April 9, 2021, when she was 99 years old, the British historian Hugo Vickers reveals in his book Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History what her last hours were like and the true cause of her death. “On the last night of his life he misled his nurses, walked slowly down the hall with his walker, poured himself a beer and drank it in the Oak Room,” Vickers wrote. “The next morning, he got up, took a bath, said he wasn’t feeling well, and passed away peacefully. By then he had lived with pancreatic cancer for almost eight years.” The historian went on to explain that the Queen was not present at the time of her death, which left her “absolutely furious because, like so many times in life, she left without saying goodbye.” In this sense, the author refers to Prince Philip’s habit of leaving official events and family gatherings without warning.
Elsewhere in the book, Vickers says that Queen Elizabeth II had become very reserved in her interactions with her favorite grandson, the prince harryafter he and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped away from royal life in 2020. He even reveals something surprising: that Elizabeth II was no longer answering Harry’s phone calls without witnesses. “Every time Harry called his grandmother, the Queen asked her lady-in-waiting to stay with her. The anguish that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex caused Elizabeth II in the last years of her life is incalculable,” estimates the author.
