Prince Philip Had Pancreatic Cancer for His Last Years Before His Death in 2021, New Book Claims
Prince Philip Had Pancreatic Cancer for His Last Years Before His Death in 2021, New Book Claims
Simon PerryMon, March 30, 2026 at 10:53 AM UTC
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The late Prince PhilipCredit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty -
Prince Philip died in April 2021 after a journey with pancreatic cancer, a new book claims
Historian Hugo Vickers, who has close links to Philip's family, has written Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History
The book also gives an insight into Philip's last days at Windsor Castle
Prince Philip had a journey with pancreatic cancer for the last eight years of his life, a new royal biography claims.
The late Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth, was diagnosed with the disease in 2013 — eight years before his death in April 2021. The condition was inoperable according to experts, historian Hugo Vickers writes, and he was discharged to recuperate at home after an initial hospital stay.
“Doctors had detected a shadow on his pancreas, and had cut him right across his stomach,” Vickers, who has well-established links with Philip’s family, states in his new book, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, which is being serialized in the Daily Mail. “The verdict was inoperable pancreatic cancer.”
Queen Elizabeth with Prince Philip in June 2006Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
He adds that during the then 91-year-old Philip’s convalescence, it was thought “that he might not be seen in public again. But, as ever, the Duke outwitted the pessimists.”
After a short stay at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, in Norfolk (where his shamed son, the former Prince Andrew, has been staying recently) he returned to public duties in August 2013.
Philip retired from his royal duties in 2017 and then spent much of the next few years living mainly at Wood Farm.
His cause of death at Windsor Castle was given as “old age” at the time, and came on April 9, 2021, two months before what would have been his 100th birthday. Vickers writes that Philip “did not want to reach his 100th birthday” because he “disliked the fuss attendant at such events.”
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Prince Philip's funeral took place at Windsor Castle on April 17, 2021Credit: Adrian Dennis/WPA Pool/Getty
“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 adds of the prince'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.”
Hugo Vickers' new bookCredit: Hodder & Stoughton
“The Queen was not there when he died. 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.’”
The late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace in 2009Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty
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Elizabeth, Vickers was told, “was ‘absolutely furious that, as so often in life, [Philip] left without saying goodbye.’”
This April, Britain will celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Philip's wife, the Queen.
PEOPLE has reached out to Buckingham Palace
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