Anne’s social media fears for young royals

THE Princess Royal has suggested that social media is adding to the pressures already faced by younger members of the Royal Family.

Interviewed for a documentary marking her 70th birthday next month, the Princess also said she hoped her legacy would be the passing on of her knowledge and experience.

The Queen’s daughter was followed for more than a year by film-makers for the ITV programme which features unseen family footage and conversations with her children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.

Commenting on the latest generation of royals, she said: “The pressure that is applied to the younger members of the family is always worse, because that’s what the media is interested in.

“But there was no social media in my day. So it probably has made it more difficult.”

In the film, to be screened on Wednesday at 9pm, the Princess adds: “I mean, I know what Twitter is but I wouldn’t go anywhere near it if you paid me, frankly.” Zara Tindall said: “Age is not a thing to her it’s, you know, very much … the more she keeps doing, the younger she’ll stay.”

She told the story of her mother returning from an event and putting on boots and a coat over her formal clothes and going out to feed the chickens.

Interviewed during the lockdown from her home at Gatcombe Park, Glos, she said: “Slow down? I thought I had slowed down. There is an element of responsibility to make sure that you kind of knit that knowledge together and pass that on.”