Liz Truss Recalls Meeting Queen Elizabeth 2 Days Before Her Death: 'No Idea...Things Were So Imminent'
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"She was physically very frail but mentally so alert," the former British prime minister said of her audience with the Queen on Sept. 6, 2022, two days before the monarch died
Liz Truss says there was no hint that her first meeting with Queen Elizabeth would also be her last.
The former British prime minister, 48, made the revelation on the Daily Mail’s weekly talk show The Reaction in a video published to X on April 14. Truss became the first premier of Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year reign to be appointed at Balmoral Castle, the royal's summer sanctuary in the Scottish Highlands, on Sept. 6, 2022, and their meeting proved to be Queen Elizabeth’s last royal engagement before her death at age 96 just two days later.
"She was physically very frail but mentally so alert. I had no idea on that day that things were so imminent," Truss said on The Reaction. "I had no idea because she was talking as if this was the start of something. That I was the new prime minister, that she'd be there, giving me advice, sort of talking through the issues of the day. She was across everything. We had a very detailed chat for 20 minutes. She met my husband. All of those things gave me no sense at all that her death was imminent."
"And she ended the meeting by saying, you know, 'I look forward to seeing you again,' " the politician continued.
Host Andrew Pierce recapped how Truss returned to London to attend to government business during her first week as prime minister and asked if it was clear that "things were deteriorating at Balmoral."
Truss answered that "the first really bad sign" was when Queen Elizabeth was unable to attend the Privy Council meeting on Sept. 7.
"We were in the Cobra Room, which is under Number 10," Truss said of the key meeting at 10 Downing Street, which doubles as the prime minister’s office and residence. "All of the key people in the cabinet were lined up. Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the house, we were ready to see the Queen on screen. And then we got the message that she wouldn't be — that the meeting was canceled, that it wouldn’t be happening. And that was, of course, very, very worrying."
Related: Queen Elizabeth’s Final Moments Before Her Death Revealed in New Book
After announcing on Sept. 8, 2022, that doctors were "concerned" for Queen Elizabeth's health, Buckingham Palace announced the death of the history-making monarch hours later. Her cause of death was later revealed as "old age."
Truss delivered a reading at Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19, 2022, and became famed as the shortest-serving prime minister in national history when she resigned 45 days into her premiership that October. Rishi Sunak was then selected as her replacement by the Conservative Party, and both went on to attend the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla in May 2023.
Truss remains involved in politics as a Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk and further revealed the advice she said Queen Elizabeth gave her in her upcoming memoir Ten Years to Save the West, which will be published on April 16.
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Liz Truss delivers a reading during the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19, 2022.Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!
The text was exclusively excerpted by the Daily Mail, including the insight that Truss says the Queen gave her during her appointment at Balmoral.
"Towards the end of our discussion, she warned me that being prime minister is incredibly aging. She also gave me two words of advice: ‘Pace yourself.' Maybe I should have listened," Truss writes in Ten Years to Save the West.
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