Princess Anne: A-Z of fascinating facts about the hard-working royal
As the Princess Royal turns 75, here’s everything you need to know about this underrated jewel in the family crown.
Image credit: Getty
As the Princess Royal turns 75, here’s everything you need to know about this underrated jewel in the family crown.
Drama and the royal family seem to go together like a horse and carriage – hardly a day goes by without one member of the clan making controversial headlines. But like most families, there is always a quiet one in the background just getting on with things – in The Firm’s case, that’s Princess Anne.
Having inherited the stoic and dutiful traits of her late mother, Queen Elizabeth, Anne is a royal workhorse who helps whip the rest into shape with her no-nonsense attitude. While she’s dutiful, though, she’s also no pushover and definitely doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
So, as Anne celebrates her 75th birthday this month, here’s an A-Z of facts about the most reliable royal.
The first and only daughter of the then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip was born at Clarence House on 15th August 1950, a little sister for two-year-old Prince Charles.
At the time of her birth, she was third in line to the throne (behind her mother and older brother), moving to second after her grandfather’s death in 1952. She is now 18th in line.
Anne is a keen sailor and has her own boat, a Rustler 44 yacht, named Ballochbuie, which she purchased for a rumoured £500,000 in 2012. Along with her husband Sir Tim Laurence, they sail her in Scotland twice a year, as that’s all their schedules will allow.
“We decided a long time ago to do it in blocks,” she said, “And therefore it was worth keeping the boat somewhere it was nice to sail.”
In 2002, she became the first member of the royal family to be convicted of a criminal offence after pleading guilty to a charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
Her three-year-old English bull terrier, Dotty, bit two children as they walked in Windsor Great Park. Anne was fined £500 for the attack and ordered to pay £250 in compensation and £148 in costs.
Anne’s divorce from her first husband Captain Mark Phillips in 1992 ended more than 18 years of marriage.
It was one of the contributing factors to the Queen’s infamous “annus horribilis” speech, along with the separations of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
The Princess Royal is a regular visitor to the city’s Murrayfield Stadium and has been the Patron of Scottish Rugby since 1986 and rarely misses a match.
“I do think rugby offers a variety of talents in one team,” Anne has said. “You have to look out for each other and that’s a different sort of responsibility within a team structure.”
While she may not be breaking any boundaries when it comes to her dress sense, Anne always looks smart and stylish and regularly re-wears her clothes.
In 2020 she was praised by then-Vogue editor Edward Enninful. “Princess Anne is a true style icon and was all about sustainable fashion before the rest of us really knew what that meant,” he said.
“She is timeless in her style, and she wears a tailored suit better than anyone else I can think of.”
As well as her Princess Royal title, another title Anne is proud to have is that of grandma. She has five grandchildren – Savannah and Isla from son Peter as well as daughter Zara’s three children, Mia, Lena and Lucas – and she loves to be as hands-on as possible.
“We quite like leaving them on Sundays,” Zara has joked. “We’ll say, ‘We’ll pick them up later, bye’.’’
Anne is quite often referred to as “the hardest working royal”. She certainly undertakes the most official duties in a year, completing 217 in 2024. And she has no plans to slow down.
When asked if she will be retiring, she replied: “I don't think there’s a retirement programme on this particular life. It really isn’t written in.”
Anne is no stranger to accidents. In 2024 she was hospitalised for five days after a “serious accident” at her Gloucestershire home – she later admitted that she “had no memory” of the incident.
Earlier this year she suffered a bruised leg after an incident at the same estate.
Her youngest nephew is James, the Earl of Wessex, son of Prince Edward and Sophie. She is also Auntie to their daughter Lady Louise, Andrew’s girls Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie as well as Princes William and Harry.
However, when William was born in 1982, Anne – who was already a mum-of-two by then – wasn’t impressed by the furore surrounding the birth. Asked if she thought too much fuss was being made about the arrival of Prince Charles's heir, she bluntly said, “Yes”.
In 1974, Anne was the target of a kidnapping plot while returning to Buckingham Palace alongside then-husband Mark Phillips. A man named Ian Ball intercepted their car on Pall Mall and began firing a gun.
Anne’s personal police officer, her chauffeur and a nearby journalist were all hit. A passing pedestrian, former boxer Ron Russell, punched Ball and helped get Anne to safety.
Another officer was shot before the police were able to subdue and arrest Ball.
After her marriage to Mark Phillips, Anne married Timothy Laurence in 1992. The couple met in the 1980s while Laurence was working for The Queen.
They married in a private ceremony near Balmoral in Scotland as the Church of England at the time did not allow divorced people to re-marry in its churches while their former spouse was still alive.
As well as her royal titles, Anne holds several military positions including the rank of a general in the British Army and Air Chief Marshal of the Royal Air Force.
In the Royal Navy, she is now an admiral following her time as a vice admiral, rear admiral and chief commandant of the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
In 1990, Anne was nominated for the prestigious accolade by President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia for her work as president of Save The Children, a role she’d had for 20 years.
“She loves people,” Kaunda said at the time. “She has extended that love to working for helpless children in many parts of the world. That is love in action.”
She became the first member of the royal family to compete in the Olympics, taking part as a member of the Great British equestrian team at Montreal 1976. Riding her mother’s horse, Goodwill, she placed 24th overall.
Anne became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1988 and accepted the Olympic flame ahead of the London Games in 2012, where daughter Zara won a silver equestrian medal.
Anne’s son Peter was born at the Lindo Wing of London’s St Mary’s hospital on 15 November 1977. Peter was the first grandchild for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip and his daughter Savannah became their first great-grandchild in 2010.
He went on to have another daughter, Isla, with Canadian wife Autumn, before they split in 2019. Peter is now dating NHS nurse Harriet Sperling.
As the only daughter of the late monarch, Anne was very close to her mother and was with her when she passed away in Balmoral on 8 September 2022.
Speaking about her final moments, an emotional Anne said in a statement, “I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest Mother’s life. It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys.
"Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.”
With her equestrian background, Anne is often seen cheering on the horses at prestigious race meetings and is a regular at Royal Ascot every June.
When she’s not watching the racing, Anne shows off her riding skills every year at the Trooping of the Colour, most recently riding alongside Prince William in honour of the King’s Birthday.
In keeping with tradition Anne joins the rest of the ‘The Firm’ at their Norfolk estate for the royal Christmas celebrations. The family all attend church on Christmas morning, greeting the waiting members of public as they walk to the service.
Anne isn’t always impressed, though – one year, after being given a flower bouquet by a fan who said they had been up all night, she light-heartedly replied, “You must be mad”.
To try and provide her two children with ‘normal’ childhoods, Anne refused the HRH titles for both Peter and Zara – she believed it would give them more freedom to pursue the personal and professional opportunities that came their way.
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” Anne has said. “So, I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
Anne didn’t go on to higher education, choosing instead to become a full-time royal after finishing school. In 1981, however, she was made Chancellor of the University of London.
She is the 10th person to hold that title and her role involves representing the university at a wide range of engagements every year.
Aged just 21, Princess Anne was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971 after winning the individual title at the European Eventing Championship at Burghley earlier that year.
Her daughter Zara also won the same BBC accolade 35 years later, after her victory in the eventing world championships in 2006.
Anne was the first of the late Queen’s children to marry when she wed Captain Mark Phillips on 14 November 1973 – brother Charles’ 25th birthday – at Westminster Abbey. The televised ceremony was watched by an estimated global audience of 500 million and the UK was given an extra bank holiday to celebrate.
Anne wore a Tudor-style dress by Maureen Baker, while Mark wore the full dress uniform of his regiment, the Queen’s Dragoon Guards.
While she’s famed for her stiff upper lip, those who know the Princess Royal say she has a great sense of humour.
Her son-in-law Mike Tindall found this out at wife Zara’s 30th birthday party. While executing the squatting dance move known as a “sl*t drop” in front of Anne, the very tight trousers that Tindall was wearing ripped, revealing a pair of boxer shorts that had the words “nibble my nuts” written on them. According to Tindall, it prompted the following deadpan response from Anne: “I’d rather not’.
Taking on of the role of Anne can be quite a daunting task for any actress, and that was certainly true for Erin Doherty, who portrayed a young Anne in series three and four of The Crown. She excelled, though, with the show’s creator Peter Morgan saying that her performance was so good that he had to feature more of Anne.
“Erin’s portrayal means that everybody has fallen in love with her,” he said. “Searches about Anne on Google went through the roof. She’s now one of the most popular royals.”
Anne’s daughter was born on 15 May 1981 at the same hospital as her brother Peter had been. Her name was due to a suggestion from her Uncle Charles.
“The baby made a rather sudden and positive arrival, and my brother thought Zara [a Greek name meaning ‘bright as the dawn’] was an appropriate name,” Anne explained later.
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