Queen Elizabeth's Final Five-Word Diary Entry Revealed

Queen Elizabeth II was carrying out royal duties right until the end, appointing Liz Truss, the newly elected leader of the U.K.'s conservative party, as prime minister just two days before she died on September 8, 2024. But a royal biography has revealed that the late Queen also recorded her final diary entry that day—and it was "practical as ever."

Author Robert Hardman released an updated version of his book Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story on Nov. 7, and in the biography, he shares the details of The Queen's last days at Balmoral Castle in September 2022.

While one might expect that Queen Elizabeth had recounted meeting Truss, her Sept. 6 diary entry contained just five words, per Hardman (via an excerpt from the Telegraph): "Edward came to see me." The late Queen's private secretary, Edward Young, had visited her that day in preparation for appointing Truss, a duty that would become Queen Elizabeth's final act of public service.

The Queen—who reportedly had been diagnosed with bone cancer—was a regular diary writer throughout her life, and Hardman penned that "she was still writing it at Balmoral two days before her death,” adding, Elizabeth's "last entry was as factual and practical as ever.”

Along with her last diary entry, a rather amusing anecdote from Queen Elizabeth's final days was recently revealed in another new book.

Political author Tim Shipman shared the story in his book Out: How Brexit Got Done and the Tories Were Undone, writing how The Queen "enjoyed a gathering of her family and treasured staff two evenings before her death." The outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson, had paid one last visit to Queen Elizabeth on that busy Sept. 6 in Scotland, and apparently, she had plenty to say about the meeting.

According to Shipman, a "courtier confided that when Boris Johnson was mentioned, The Queen, mischief in her eye, had said, 'Well at least I won't have that idiot organizing my funeral now.'"