Brave Battle: Queen Latifah’s Tragic Medical Secret Revealed

Rapper Queen Latifah has been secretly visiting a cancer treatment center for almost a year, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively.

The 48-year-old hip-hop star has sneaked into a Beverly Hills facility that specializes in treating advanced cancer and blood diseases — and has appeared weak and unsteady on her feet when leaving.

“It’s a serious concern,” said an insider. “She goes every couple of weeks and spends two or three hours inside the infusion unit. She’s been going for at least eight months.”

The Chicago star usually pulls up to the building by herself in a white Range Rover. Occasionally, she’s chauffeured in a Rolls-Royce by an assistant.

After a recent appointment, Latifah was seen clutching a stack of documents in one hand and a revitalizing drink in the other.

On Oct. 2, she was spotted staggering out of the center, which is affiliated with the highly regarded Cedars-Sinai group.

Latifah’s health crisis follows the death of her beloved mother, Rita Owens, who succumbed to a heart condition on March 21 after a decade-long battle.

“Rita had chronic heart failure and was on medication. She had a defibrillator implanted in her chest, and Latifah was her constant caregiver to the very end,” a friend said.

Happily, the future isn’t all doom and gloom for the Hairspray star.

Latifah’s longtime partner, Eboni Nichols, 40, was recently spotted sporting a massive engagement ring and flaunting an obvious baby bump Oct. 3!

“Friends are saying Latifah and Eboni are finally engaged,” said an insider.

And a source added: “This will be the first child for Latifah.”

Latifah met Nichols, a choreographer and former Los Angeles Lakers cheerleader, on the set of Dancing with the Stars in 2009.

The two went public after they were caught kissing in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, in 2013. They split in 2015 but reunited on a passionate getaway to Cabo San Lucas last summer.

“Eboni looks so happy,” said the source. “She’s positively glowing.”

Latifah’s made no secret of her desire to start a family, telling a Television Critics Association audience in August 2017 that it’s definitely been on her mind.

“I had to get a lot of partying out of my system early in life for about 40 years, you know what I’m saying. I’m good now. I think I’m ready,” she confessed.

Motherhood and marriage would be bittersweet for Latifah — who pals said still mourns the death of her older brother, Lance, a police officer in East Orange, N.J., who was killed while riding a motorcycle nearly two decades ago.