Sir Reginald Hibbert, the UK government’s ambassador in Paris, credited his Whitehall colleagues in December 1981 with “discussion about the president’s health which seemed to me to carry some conviction”. He said that while the release of the president’s six-monthly health certificate “skillfully” gave a “completely reassuring impression”, it left a doubt that “there may be some areas where his health is not satisfactory”. Hibbert suggested Mitterrand might have cancer. His suspicion, now revealed in the latest release of classified Cabinet documents from the National Archives at Kew, was well founded. Mitterrand died in 1996 of prostate cancer – something he had successfully concealed from the French public throughout his presidency and until his death. He had been in office for less than a year when the UK ambassador to France raised his suspicions, which came from an Elysian insider who said he had “very reliable reports” about Mitterrand’s health long before he took office . Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Hibbert wrote: “According to these [reports]Mr Mitterrand was suffering from a form of leukemia which was controlled within limits by medical treatment and the effects of which would be slow to develop.’ He said Mitterrand did not see his ill health as an obstacle to running for the French presidency because he was such an outsider for the job. “When the election suddenly swung in his favor, he got caught and was now forced to make the best of his health,” Hibbert added. He said Mitterrand had recently told viewers he was “feeling better” after a routine check-up – leading to an accusation from the Elysées source that Mitterrand was “lying to the French” about the seriousness of his health. Hibbert also noted the president’s “strange behavior,” “extremely pale” skin, and shortness of breath. “Paradoxically, I think the more Mr. Mitterrand parades his supposedly clean health, the more one suspects that something is wrong with him.” Mitterrand served as president until 1995, when he was succeeded by Jacques Chirac. His ill health only became known after his death in 1996, when his former private doctor lifted the lid on his patient.
