The royal fan who captured the ‘fab four’ at Sandringham in 2017

Karen Anvil, 41, on how her snap (below) of the Royal family at Sandringham changed her life

25 December, 2017

It was Christmas morning, and I was absolutely exhausted. My daughter, Rachel, then 17, had woken me up at six o’clock, raring to head off to Sandringham to watch the Royal family arriving at church. It was usually a challenge to get her out of bed for college, but not that morning. By half-past seven we were out of the house and driving the short distance to St Mary Magdalene Church.

I’ve been to Sandringham many times before – I walk my dogs in the lovely woods there – though only once on Christmas Day, in 2015. But that morning, it was mobbed. Some people had been waiting since one in the morning. It was the first time that Meghan had joined Harry for the Christmas Day service. There were metal detectors and sniffer dogs, and we were searched before making our way on to the church grounds. It was freezing, but we’d brought some hot chocolate to keep warm. Carol sheets were handed round, and everyone was singing – the atmosphere was electric.

I spotted a gap halfway down the pathway near the rope barrier. I caught sight of the press pen opposite and thought ‘they’re going to get some great photos’. We’d only been waiting 20 minutes, when Harry, Meghan, William and Kate all walked down the path towards us. It was so intimate, we were an arm’s length away. I wished the royal four a merry Christmas as they looked over towards us, then took a photo on my old iphone – hoping to get a decent picture for my mum, who’s a big Kate Middleton fan.

I was lucky that they were all in the frame. My daughter said my photo was pretty good (she wanted to share it on Snapchat), so I tweeted it out to all 11 of my followers and responded to a BBC tweet about the royal arrival at Sandringham with my photo. As a member of the public, I got the opportunity to interact with them in a way the professional photographers didn’t. Within minutes, my phone went crazy and I’d got a thousand likes on the post. I spotted Rhiannon Mills, Sky’s royal correspondent, in the crowd as we were leaving, showed her the photo, and she asked, ‘Would you mind going live?’ There I was, in wellies and a waterproof, being asked about Meghan’s outfit.

By three o’clock that afternoon, I was trending on Twitter and feeling a bit overwhelmed. I was also a terrible Christmas-dinner guest at my Aunt Wilma and Uncle Derek’s, checking my phone constantly. Some time later, my doctor had to prescribe me sleeping tablets because I was so wired.

But that photo has also enhanced my life. I got an agent – the demand for the picture was so huge – and was able to give up work for a year with the money I made from newspapers buying the picture.

I even met Prince Harry again, in February 2018, when the couple visited Millennium Point in Birmingham. He said, ‘I hope you’ve been paid a lot of money for that photo.’ In April 2018, I signed the image rights over to Rachel, so all earnings now go to her.

This Christmas will be the third year that I’ll go to Sandringham – it feels like a tradition now. But I will never be able to recreate the photo I took that day. It was a one-off. —