Princess Anne calls out young royals for messing with tested tradition

PRINCESS Anne has warned the younger generation of royals against “reinventing the wheel” in their approach to their duties.

The queen’s daughter used a rare interview ahead of her 70th birthday to caution her more youthful family members not to change the traditional approach to charity work.

She singles out no one in particular, but this year has seen Harry and Meghan quit as working royals as they prepare to launch a charitable venture called Archewell from the US, where they live with son Archie, one.

Anne said younger royals should not forget older family members such as herself have been successfully working in the field for decades.

Speaking to US magazine Vanity Fair, the princess praised her elderly parents for deciding to hand down some of their duties to their children and grandchildren.

Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, have complained about being “straitjacketed” by the monarchy and say they want to find a new way of carrying out public work.

And several years ago William and Harry decided to take a different approach to charity work and official duties, representing fewer charities to get more involved at a grass-roots level.

It led to the launch of successful campaigns such as Harry’s Invictus Games but also criticism that they were taking on fewer official duties even than the elderly queen and DDuke of Edinburgh.

Anne, who has supported charities including Save the Children for decades and carried out more than 500 engagements last year, described herself as “the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back”.

She said: “I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past.’

‘Nowadays, they’re much more looking for: ‘Oh, let’s do it a new way.’

“And I’m already at the stage, ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics’.”