Prince Philip Had Pancreatic Cancer in Final Years Before Death, New Royal Book Claims

A new royal biography is claiming that Prince Philip secretly battled pancreatic cancer in the last eight years of his life.

The late Duke of Edinburgh, who was married to the late Queen Elizabeth for over 73 years, died on April 9, 2021.

In his new book, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, historian Hugo Vickers claims that Prince Philip was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013.

Keep reading to find out more…According to Vickers, who has a well-established connection to Prince Philip‘s family, writes that the condition was inoperable, and he returned home to recuperate after an initial hospital stay.

“Doctors had detected a shadow on his pancreas, and had cut him right across his stomach,” Vickers writes, per The Daily Mail. “The verdict was inoperable pancreatic cancer.”

During the then 91-year-old royal’s recuperation time, Prince Philip thought “that he might not be seen in public again. But, as ever, the Duke outwitted the pessimists.”

After a brief stay at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, Prince Philip returned to public duties in August 2013.

He retired from royal duties in 2017 and spent much of the following years living at Wood Farm.

Prince Philip died at Windsor Castle in April 2021, and his cause of death was listed as “old age,” as he passed just two months before what would have been his 100th birthday.

According to Vickers, Prince Philip “did not want to reach his 100th birthday” because he “disliked the fuss attendant at such events.”

“On the last night of his life, he gave his nurses the slip, shuffled along the corridor on his Zimmer frame, helped himself to a beer and drank it in the Oak Room,” Vickers writes about Prince Philip‘s final hours. “The following morning, he got up, had a bath, said he did not feel well, and quietly slipped away. By this point, he had lived with pancreatic cancer for nearly eight years — far longer than the usual survival time from diagnosis.”

“The Queen was not there when he died,” the historian continues. “There had often been times in earlier days when she had asked the staff to let her know when Philip was leaving, only to be told, ‘His Royal Highness left 20 minutes ago.’”

Vickers was told that Queen Elizabeth “was ‘absolutely furious that, as so often in life, [Philip] left without saying goodbye.’”

In 2022, a royal aide reveals what Queen Elizabeth did in a private moment after Prince Philip‘s funeral.