Princess Anne at 60

PRINCESS ANNE has been described as arrogant, rude and totally uncompromising. She has also emerged today as the most respected of her generation of the Royal Family, carrying out more public duties than any of her brothers.

Princess Anne is providing the monarchy with the stability it needs Princess Anne is providing the monarchy with the stability it needs

As she celebrates her 60th birthday, her biographer explains how she has changed from being the teenager the press loved to hate to the woman who commands the admiration of the nation.

She has survived a kidnap attempt, the scandal of being the only daughter of a reigning sovereign to be divorced and remarried, and seen the marriages of two of her brothers break up while her baby brother Edward quit the Royal Marines in a blaze of publicity.

 Not that you will ever hear a word of criticism about any of them from her. Anne, the Princess Royal, is unique. She remains the most enigmatic member of the Royal Family; an aloof and publicly unemotional woman who has never allowed the ermine cloak of royalty to fall and expose her real hopes, fears and ambitions.

She has a devastating wit, a total disregard for the approval of others and, as a former European Three-Day-Event Champion, her physical courage has never been in doubt. She also displayed a touching, if unexpected, pleasure when a rose was named after her.

When she married Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey in 1973 she was the monarch’s first child to be marry in a televised ceremony. The wedding to husband number two, Tim Laurence, who she met when he was serving as a Season Offi cer on board Britannia, was a much more moderate ceremony held at Crathie Parish Church near Balmoral in Scotland (when Anne did not give the required 15 days’ notice for the wedding so technically broke the law). From the age of 18 when I first met her, Anne has pursued her duties with unflagging energy and dedication and at 60, the normal retiring age for women, there is little sign of her slowing down. A workaholic, she hates having a day off. As she once told me: “I do not like sitting around doing nothing. I try to fill the time.”

The intervening years have not been hard on her. Anne doesn’t require a personal trainer to keep her stomach flat or a hairdresser in constant attendance. Neither do her hands show any evidence of a weekly visit from a manicurist. She has beautiful eyes, a fine complexion and still wears the same size 10 clothes she wore 20 years

ago. In fact, she claims many of her outfi ts are at least that old. A suspicious woman who does not take easily to

strangers, Anne has a close circle of friends, most of whom have known her all her life. To them she is approachable and loyal, so long as none is foolish enough to confuse friendship with familiarity.

Her parents’ approval is something she always yearned for as a child and which concerns her deeply even today. Thankfully, neither can do any wrong in the others’ eyes. When the Queen lost her sister and her mother in the course of a few months in 2002 it was to her daughter that she turned for comfort. Today they are closer than ever, with Princess Anne doing everything she can to make Her Majesty’s autumn years a little easier, representing her on a investitures on her behalf at Buckingham Palace.

Anne has had a rollercoaster relationship with the media since she first burst on to the world stage as a teenager and her “Naff orff” remark to reporters defined her early views of the Press. At Burleigh in 1972, when a photographer said he hoped he was not being a pest, she replied: “You are being a pest by virtue of that camera in your hand.” However, it is rare for Anne to lose her temper.

In fact, the only way one can tell if she is angry is when her jaw muscles tighten and her voice becomes shrill. If she appears to go out of her way to antagonise the media it is because she refuses to accommodate them by “doing stunts” as she calls them. She won’t pick up babies or kiss handicapped children, even if by doing so she would receive favourable coverage. Like her father the Duke of Edinburgh she believes it is not necessary to be liked to be respected.

After a visit to a leper camp, where she didn’t flinch, I asked her how it had affected her. She replied: “I have to be realistic. If every case were treated personally I would go nuts. You have to be remote, otherwise you would crack up.” Her down-to-earth approach to her role as President of the Save the Children Fund conceals a natural and inbred haughtiness. Equally, however, no one could accuse her of the petty vindictiveness or unpredictable behaviour shown at times by her siblings. As one of her bodyguards said: “You always know where you are with her.”

Anne’s staff at Buckingham Palace and Gatcombe Park, the £5million home bought originally for her and Mark Phillips by the Queen, and now shared with Tim Laurence, know how to gauge her moods. Her small team is very loyal, though one former assistant did describe her as a “bossy bitch”.

Peter and Zara, her children, do not have a royal title, in spite of the pleas of their grandmother to be allowed to make them at least Lord and Lady. The pair are sensible, well-adjusted young adults living comparatively normal lives and Peter’s wife, Autumn, is about to make the Queen a greatgrandmother for the first time. The Princess Royal once claimed she does not possess a natural maternal instinct but her pride in her children and their mutual affection is plain to see when they are together.

After 40 years of unblemished public service Anne has been acknowledged as the most admired member of the Royal Family after her mother. For many years she was thought to be the odd one out. Today she is seen as the woman who, along with the Queen, is providing the monarchy with the stability it needs. Or, to use the oft-quoted remark attributed to Prince Philip, she is the son he wishes he’d had.

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