Queen Elizabeth II had been diagnosed with bone cancer and knew she was dying for months, according to Boris Johnson, casting new light on a period in which Meghan Markle was aiming new allegations at the palace.
The former British prime minister described in his memoir Unleashed how Elizabeth had bone marrow cancer for a year or more before her death and had "known all summer that she was going."
Harry and Meghan were in Britain when she died and had made a poignant trip to see Princess Diana's grave, but did not go up to Balmoral to see the queen.
Later, in Harry's book Spare, he wrote: "As with so many partings, I just wished there'd been...one more goodbye."
It is not clear whether Prince Harry and Meghan were told how serious Elizabeth's prognosis was but he did speak to her days before she died, including a discussion about her health.
Needless to say, the events of Elizabeth's final months take on a new light with the knowledge that she knew her time was coming to an end.
Prince Harry and Meghan's Summer in 2022
August saw the launch of Meghan's Archetypes podcast in which she took several veiled swipes at the palace, including over what she described as a "fire in the baby's room" during a tour of South Africa in 2019.
"The heater in the nursery caught on fire," Meghan told the Spotify podcast. "There was no smoke detector. Someone happened to just smell smoke down the hallway went in, fire extinguished.
"He was supposed to be sleeping in there. And we came back. And of course, as a mother, you go, Oh, my God, what? Everyone's in tears, everyone's shaken. And what do we have to do? Go out and do another official engagement? I said, 'This doesn't make any sense'."
Elsewhere, she gave an interview to The Cut in which she made a veiled reference to having additional royal bombshells: "I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to."
And she took a swipe at the longstanding practice of staging photo opportunities on the first day of school for royal children.
Interviewer Allison P. David wrote: "Earlier in our conversation about her goals for the life she's creating here, she'd remarked upon how, if Archie were in school in the U.K., she'd never be able to do school pickup and drop-off without it being a royal photo call with a press pen of 40 people snapping pictures."
Since Prince William and Princess Kate's children do those photocalls—though in reality only on their first day at a new school and with only a handful of photographers—it will likely have caused some discomfort with them.
Meghan's veiled swipes will likely have landed harder with William, Kate and King Charles III than with Elizabeth herself, and it is entirely possible aides simply did not tell her about them.
However, some may think it awkward to look back on them knowing that as Meghan was making those statements, and they were being reported on as attacks on the monarchy, the head of that institution, knew she was dying of cancer.
Prince Harry's Last Telephone Call With the Queen
And that is particularly so because Harry and Meghan have always sought to position themselves as close to the queen.
She is one member of the royal family they had only praise for and Harry described them as having a special relationship.
In Harry's book Spare, he described their last phone call just four days before her death: "I spent much of the flight staring at the clouds, replaying the last time I'd spoken with Granny. Four days earlier, long chat on the phone. We'd touched on many topics.
"Her health, of course. The turmoil at Number 10 [Downing Street, seat of British government]. The Braemar Games—she was sorry about not being well enough to attend. We talked also about the biblical drought.
"The lawn at Frogmore, where Meg and I were staying, was in terrible shape. 'Looks like the top of my head, Granny! Balding and brown in patches.'
"She laughed. I told her to take care, I looked forward to seeing her soon."
What Boris Johnson Said About Queen's Cancer
Johnson wrote in Unleashed: ""Edward Young, her private secretary, tried to prepare me," Johnson wrote. "I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were worried that at any time she could enter a sharp decline.
"'She's gone down quite a bit over the summer,' he said. And then the footman knocked and showed me into Her Majesty's drawing room.
"'Good morning, Prime Minister,' she said, and as we sat down opposite one another on the greeny-blue sofas I could see at once what Edward meant.
"She seemed pale and more stooped, and she had dark bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from drips or injections.
"But her mind—as Edward had also said—was completely unimpaired by her illness, and from time to time in our conversation she still flashed that great white smile in its sudden mood-lifting beauty."
"As Edward Young explained to me later," he continued, "she had known all—summer that she was going, but was determined to hang on and do her last duty: to oversee the peaceful and orderly transition from one government to the next—and, I expect, to add another departing PM to her record-breaking tally."
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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