Camilla Tominey on a princess having her moment
As the Princess Royal and her mother share a jokey moment in public, Camilla Tominey shines a light on their relationship
Having inherited her father’s no-nonsense approach to life, it is well known within royal circles that the Princess Royal has never been one to suffer fools gladly – even if they are the leader of the free world. That might explain the footage that went viral on social media yesterday, seemingly showing the 69-year-old dodging a meeting with Donald Trump.
As the Queen greets the US President and his wife at Buckingham Palace, flanked by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, she spies her daughter lingering in the doorway and lifts a glove to beckon her over. The Princess appears to respond with a shrug, and stays exactly where she is.
An aide has explained the moment as “some mother/daughter banter”, insisting that the Queen was “just encouraging the family and staff to come through”; others have suggested that a bemused Anne was telling her mother there were no remaining world leaders in line to greet. But Twitter users have interpreted it as a show of defiance and Anne has been praised for “not giving a s---” about shaking Trump’s hand. “She’s always been my favourite royal,” wrote one.
It’s a sentiment that seems to be spreading. The Princess has also unwittingly enjoyed a renaissance as one of the sassiest characters in the latest series of The Crown on Netflix – her straightforwardness, raised eyebrows and determination to live an independent life all endearing her to a new generation of admirers.
So could the Princess Royal be reaching the peak of her powers?
Always known as a “Daddy’s Girl”, the Duke of Edinburgh once famously remarked of his horse-mad only daughter: “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she isn’t interested.”
After growing up in the shadow of her older brother and heir, the Prince of Wales, Anne has won respect for not only carving out a successful career in equestrianism, but also as one of the hardest working members of the Firm. She carried out 518 royal engagements in 2018 and shows no sign of slowing down as she approaches her 70th birthday next August.
Her steely demeanour has long hidden a genuine passion for the compassionate care of others, be it through charities such as Save the Children, the Princess Royal Trust for Carers she set up in 1991, or her work in poverty-stricken African nations.
Indeed, such is the recognition of her trooper-like reputation behind palace doors that the Queen has allowed documentary makers to film the Princess Royal for a special programme due out next year – to mark not only her 70th birthday but half a century of public service.
It highlights an increasing intimacy between mother and daughter. The pair have already grown significantly closer since the Queen lost both her mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen
Mother, and her sister, Princess Margaret, in swift succession in 2002.
“I was surprised she’d co-operate with something like this [the film], but the Queen clearly thinks recognition is due for all her daughter’s hard work over the past 50 years,” says Joe Little, editor of Majesty magazine.
Royal author Phil Dampier believes the Queen will also hold a party to mark the Princess’s auspicious birthday: “Last time, she had to share with Prince Andrew, who is exactly 10 years younger, but this time the Queen will throw a party just in her daughter’s honour. Although Anne wouldn’t want it, her mother will insist.”
It is perhaps worth noting that plans to mark the Duke of York’s 60th have reportedly been shelved, given the recent furore surrounding his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Both royal experts agree that Prince Andrew’s fall from grace will have an impact not only on Anne’s workload but her relationship with the 93-year-old monarch.
According to Dampier, “Anne is
‘Thirty years ago, she was seen as the black sheep. Now she is one of the most reliable members of the family’
much closer to the Queen than she used to be. She’s always been close to her father, because she’s very similar to him. His philosophy is just get on with it – and that’s just the way she is, too.”
As Kevin S Macleod, the Canadian Secretary to the Queen, has said of the Princess: “Her credo is: ‘Keep me busy. I’m here to do good things. I’m here to meet as many people as possible’.”
But there has always been more to Princess Anne than her 300-plus patronages – not to mention the bizarre fascination with lighthouses that has seen her tick off almost every example on the British coast.
As the first member of the monarchy to compete in the Olympics, in 1976, she was arguably the trailblazer for royals breaking with tradition. In 1987 – the same year she was given the title of Princess Royal – she memorably became the first person from the family to appear on a television quiz show, when she competed on the BBC panel game A Question of Sport.
In 1974, she famously became the victim of a kidnapping attempt by a pistol-waving man named Ian Ball, who stopped her car on Pall Mall. When Ball demanded Anne get out, she replied with characteristic gusto: “Not bloody likely!” and reportedly considered hitting him, before exiting out of the other side. She later told Michael Parkinson that she was “scrupulously polite” to her
would-be abductor, as she thought that it would be “silly to be too rude at that stage”.
But there have been moments of rudeness – most notably to the press, which the Princess insists do not accompany her on any official engagements. Having gained a reputation for spikiness, she courted all the wrong headlines when she had a fling with her royal protection officer, Sgt Peter Cross, while still married to her first husband, Mark Phillips. Because the romance happened when Princess Anne had two young children – Peter and Zara – it sent shockwaves around the palace. But there was sympathy for the mother of two when Cross, who by then had left Scotland Yard, sold the details to the News of the World in 1984, and when Phillips (whom she divorced in 1992) was revealed to have fathered a love child.
Yet, since marrying her second husband, Tim Laurence, then a commander in the Royal Navy, in December 1992, the Princess’s life has largely been blemish-free.
So could the Queen’s increasing reliance on her only daughter – and the decision to remove Prince Andrew from the Firm’s front line – make the House of Windsor’s most industrious member even busier?
“She’s likely to become a much more important figure,” explains Phil Dampier. “Unlike her younger brother, she’s extremely discreet and not likely to make any faux pas. She’s a safe pair of hands.
“Thirty years ago, she was seen as the black sheep. She got a bad press because she was quite rude to journalists. She had an affair and then came the break-up of her marriage. But she has put it all behind her and is now one of the most reliable members of the family. She’s had her own scandals in the past but got through them, while it’s probably much too late for Andrew to do the same.”
One consideration for the Princess Royal is likely to be her relationship with her grandchildren – Savannah, eight, and Isla, seven, Peter’s children with his wife Autumn Kelly; and Zara and Mike Tindall’s daughters Mia, five, and one-year-old Lena – who all live on her Gatcombe estate.
A royal insider revealed: “They are an incredibly close family. I know the Princess has got a bit of a reputation as an ice maiden, but she absolutely dotes on her granddaughters. She works so hard that she doesn’t see them much during the week, but loves to spend her weekends with them. I wouldn’t imagine she’d want to sacrifice much more of that precious time together.”
Yet Joe Little insists that Anne will remain a vital cog in the royal machinery, even though the Prince of Wales is reportedly planning to streamline it in the future.
“She’s in her 70th year but in remarkably good shape mentally and physically, so there is no sign of her slowing down,” he says. “Whether she can take on any of her brother’s workload remains to be seen, but Charles couldn’t not have her around. When they do see each other, they get on like a house on fire, but they’re not in each other’s pockets. He trusts his sister implicitly.”
With her father, oldest brother and now her mother looking to her for support, one can’t help but think the Princess Royal could prop up the Firm, as well as The Crown, for some time – whether she agrees to shake hands with world leaders, or not.
‘She’s had her own scandals in the past, but got through them’