Queen Elizabeth II experienced a miscarriage that remained unknown to the public throughout her reign, according to royal author Gyles Brandreth.

The claim appears in Brandreth’s biography ‘Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait’ and is based on information he says came from Sonia Berry, a childhood friend of the late Queen. The detail has resurfaced after Brandreth discussed the deeply private episode while speaking about his account of Elizabeth’s life.

Brandreth writes that Elizabeth had four children and, according to Berry, also suffered one miscarriage. He does not provide a date for the pregnancy loss, and it remains unclear when during Elizabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip it occurred.

Speaking on Hello!’s Right Royal Podcast, Brandreth explained that he wanted his biography to present his fuller account of Elizabeth II’s life. The miscarriage is mentioned only briefly in the book, during a comparison between Elizabeth’s experience of motherhood and that of Queen Victoria.

Brandreth’s wording is significant because the information is attributed directly to Berry rather than presented as something established through official royal records. The claim should therefore be understood as a recollection provided by somebody who knew Elizabeth personally.

Elizabeth married Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey in November 1947. Their first child, Charles, was born the following year, followed by Anne in 1950. Elizabeth became Queen in February 1952 before later welcoming Andrew in 1960 and Edward in 1964. She and Philip ultimately had four children together.

The timing of the reported miscarriage has not been revealed, leaving unanswered whether it occurred before, between or after those pregnancies.

The absence of further detail also reflects how carefully Elizabeth guarded her personal life. Even after spending 70 years on the throne, many aspects of her experiences as a wife and mother remained beyond public view.

‘Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait’ was first published in Britain in December 2022, only months after the Queen’s death at Balmoral at the age of 96. Brandreth had known members of the Royal Family for decades and drew upon his own encounters as well as conversations with people within Elizabeth’s circle.

The biography has previously attracted attention for other personal claims, including Brandreth’s account of Prince Philip’s final moments and his assertion that the Queen was not able to reach her husband’s bedside before he died at Windsor Castle in April 2021.

Elizabeth and Philip were married for 73 years, a partnership Brandreth has described as unusually enduring. He has said that one of the Queen’s friends, who had attended their wedding, later praised his portrayal of their marriage.

What makes the miscarriage claim striking is not its sensationalism but its intimacy. Elizabeth’s pregnancies, children and family occupied public history, while this reported loss apparently did not.

Brandreth offers no elaborate reconstruction of the episode, and there is no publicly available independent confirmation of when it happened. That restraint matters.

Instead, the revelation leaves readers with a small but poignant reminder of the distance between Elizabeth II, the monarch followed by millions, and Elizabeth, the woman whose most painful experiences could remain known only to those closest to her.