Queen ‘had no regrets’, says biographer

Queen Elizabeth II knew she had limited time left and said on the weekend before her death that she had ‘‘no regrets’’, a new book claims.

According to the royal biography, the monarch had been determined to keep busy after the death of the her husband Prince Philip in April last year, which helped her cope with her loss. But when doctors advised her to take things easier, she is said to have conceded: ‘‘I’ve got to be sensible.’’

Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, written by Gyles Brandreth and serialised in the Daily Mail, also reveals that the Queen was decisive when she ‘‘fired’’ her son Prince Andrew after the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. When Andrew told her his full account of the saga involving his friendship with the paedophile American financier, she is said to have responded: ‘‘Intriguing.’’

According to the Right Rev Dr Iain

Greenshields, moderator of the Church of Scotland, the queen was in ‘‘fantastic form’’ on the weekend before she died on September 9 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

He told Brandreth that the monarch was ‘‘so alive and engaging’’, and that they had spoken about her childhood, her horses, church affairs, and her sadness over the war in Ukraine.

‘‘Her faith was everything to her. She told me she had no regrets,’’ Greenshields said.

Brandreth wrote: ‘‘Her Majesty always knew that her remaining time was limited. She accepted this with all the grace you’d expect.’’

He claimed he had ‘‘heard that the Queen had a form of myeloma – bone marrow cancer’’, which would explain her tiredness, weight loss and mobility problems. Her death certificate stated that she died of old age.

Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the claims. Brandreth, who is a friend of the royal family as well as their biographer, also wrote about Philip’s final days before his death aged 99 on April 9 last year.

He wrote that after the thenDuke of Edinburgh retired in 2017, he and his wife would go weeks without seeing each other, although they spoke on the phone. She understood his wish to be left to his own devices and ‘‘not to be fussed over’’, according to the book. Brandreth also drew on the downfall of Andrew in 2019 after his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview. While his mother retained her ‘‘confidence’’ in him, she was also a ‘‘realist’’, the book says, and ‘‘essentially fired her own son’’.

Brandreth writes that the Queen was also said to have enjoyed watching TV dramas such as Line of Duty, although she sometimes struggled to understand the ‘‘convoluted plotting’’.