The Queen’s Overlooked Daughter: Tragic Truth About Princess Anne
11 sympathizing facts about Princess Anne.
If we take a comparative angle, then no doubt assail that Princess Anne, the only daughter of the royal couple, has not accumulated several eyeballs from the general public.
Why? As her older brother Prince Charles and his sons had received much of the scrutiny. Despite the fact, Princess Anne had much of an eventful life — from getting kidnapped after weeks of her wedding to being nominated for a Nobel prize.
The woman is considered a bit blunt, but this doesn’t account for staying in highlight. Rather, her endeavour of being the hardest working royal keeps her in the limelight — she enjoys an informal title about outperforming her royal duties.
Despite all her endeavours, the woman has been overlooked for most of her life. If you have known some facts from Princess Anne’s life, then now is the time to dig a bit deeper — and know the tragic truth or sympathizing facts about the lady.
1. Princess Anne’s loner childhood
While Queen Elizabeth inherited the crown in 1952, Princess Anne was just two years old. After getting crowned, the Queen did not have much time for the young ones, leaving Prince Charles and Princess Anne to spend a decent amount of time with the nanny — often months.
Queen Elizabeth did not neglect her children. Instead, she had no option but to travel the globe for various royal obligations.
At the age of 13, the young princess was off for boarding school. Princess relished her time in the boarding school at Benenden School, but it further meant her spending a long time away from the family.
2. The position of Princess Anne
Princess Anne’s birth made her third in the line of the throne, but after the birth of her brothers, she was displaced in the line of succession — growing even further away as her brothers went on to have offspring.
Sadly, it’s all due to the patriarchal rule, prioritizing the male heirs over the female ones.
In 2013, the Succession to “The Crown Act” ended the archaic rule, but the damage had been done. The act did state throne to be passed by birth order rather than sex, but it only applied to the heirs born after October 28, 2011.
3. Princess Anne despised the public eye
Some royals love their celebrity status. They enjoy growing up in the public view, but Princess Anne was not one of them. In the interview, she stated that she didn’t ask to be born a princess.
Princess Anne is fortunate that she didn’t grow up in a time when social media had taken everything by storm. But, public scrutiny still existed — and quite an intense one.
When talking about the aspect of royal life, princess Anne started loathing and greeting the public. She gave the word regarding such greetings:
We hated them, can you imagine as teenagers?…. Hardly the sort of thing you would volunteer to do. … How many people enjoy walking into a room full of people you’ve never met before and then try a street.
Her nature reflects why Anne loved her time at school so much as that could be the place where she could be simply a teenage girl.
Everyone knew her royal status back in school, but she was treated like everyone else, and she loved the informality.
4. The media painted Princess Anne as rude
People are likely to sympathize with Princess Anne as despite owning privileges, she also got to live with several downsides.
We sympathize, but the media doesn’t. As soon as her distaste for public life surfaced, the press hammered her — Princess Anne’s reputation of being difficult circulated.
The media highlighted her impatience. She even earned a nickname of “Her Royal Rudeness” in her 20s after yelling “Naff off!” at reporters.
It was not only the British media but American reporters who also followed the criticizing campaign.
Joy Billington, a Journalist, observed Anne on a 1970, U.S trip and mentions his conclusion in the documentary “The Real Princess Anne”, labelling her as “very bad-tempered [and] very sulky.”
Another royal biographer, Kitty Kelly, mentions Princess Anne in her work “The Royals”— but not in a positive way.
She expounded how Prince Charles was much willing to cooperate while for the princess, she stated:
She seemed selfish and arrogant, . . . telling photographers to “Bugger off.
5. Princess Anne’s tragic Olympic dream
Princess Anne shared her love for horse riding with her mother. Anne was a talented equestrian.
Her passion turned intense as she competed during school and even after graduation. The women went the extra mile to study competitive riding with a professional trainer.
Her equestrian talent was kept away from the public view for a few years. But, by 1971, it was impossible to hide such interest from the press as she made big in competitions like Rushall Horse Trials and the European Eventing Championships.
Princess Anne participated and won the European gold medal, securing the title BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.
The princess aimed for higher — riding in the Olympics. But, luck left her side as the unfortunate accidents followed, dumping her hopes and squeezing her aspirations.
Her horse Doublet strained his tendon, disabling the princess from trying out for the Olympic team. Anne’s aspirations didn’t die as four years later, she tried again, hoping to make it to the Olympics, but luck ditched her again.
She had a nasty fall, leaving her hospitalized for days with a fractured vertebra. The dream did not shatter but turned true in 1976. Despite the injury, Princess Anne made it to the Olympics, becoming the first royal to compete in the game.
Her experience was tragic. She did not only fail to win a medal but later possessed no memory of the occasion — an event that was her biggest dream.
Why so? She had a memory loss due to a fall she incurred at the Montreal Olympics. After the fall, she never actually recovered her memories of that particular day.
6. Princess Anne was nearly kidnapped
Princess Anne is no damsel in distress but rather a fierce royal who thwarted a kidnapping attempt that could have ended in tragedy.
In 1974, Princess Anne was on the way to a charity event when an armed man shot her bodyguard in the shoulder.
The kidnapper was eventually forced out of her Limo, but then he was punched by a passerby. The police arrested the hooligan who had plans of demanding £2m ransom from the Queen.
The total kidnapping duration lasted for about ten minutes, where Princess Anne remained calm throughout. The only time she lost her temper was when the kidnapper ripped her dress. She mentioned:
The back of my dress split and that was his most dangerous moment . . . I lost my rag at that stage.
7. Princess Anne’s tragic first marriage
Princess’s love life was a rough road. She had a couple of relationships — including one with Andrew Parker Bowles, the husband of Anne’s future sister-in-law Camilla.
But all that was before marrying Captain Mark Phillips. The couple had two children, but the marriage was tumultuous.
Cheating rumours made the marriage quite rocky — Anne’s rumoured relationship with her bodyguard Peter Cross was the most notable.
Anne stayed zipped and never confirmed any stance, but the latter sold the details regarding the “alleged relation” to the press for £600,000 in 1984.
Instead of walking on the rough path, the couple ended their wedding of 18 years in 1992.
8. Her next relationship became a public affair
Despite staying low-key, Anne’s love life was never under the radar. News aired that Timothy Laurence, then a commander in the Royal Navy and now the princess’s husband, allegedly shared an affair with her and that too during her marriage.
The relationship touched the public’s ear when in 1989, personal princess letters from Lauranc were stolen and handed to the press. The couple married in 1992.
9. Princess Anne is the only royal with a criminal conviction
Sadly, Princess Anne is the only royal who possesses a dubious honour with a criminal conviction.
In 2002 she failed to control her dog in the public park, which ended up attacking two kids.
There were other instances when she faced trouble with the law — on all the occasions when she crossed the speed limits.
Anne has been a bit of a speedster for decades. She was fined in 1990 and had her driver’s license suspended for a month.
10. She had a tense relationship with Princess Diana
Princess Anne shared tense relations with princess Diana as they both had little in common.
In 2020, Royal reporter Richard Kay told Vanity Fair:
She [Anne] didn’t like the way she [Diana] went about her duty and the way she used the cameras and the media to promote herself, in her eyes… Anne had a much more traditional approach to monarchy and royal duty
The comfort between the two deteriorated with years to the extent that Princess Diana would avoid her sister-in-law as much as possible.
Princess Diana refused to name Princess Anne as one of Prince Harry’s godmothers. Result? Princess Anne did not attend her nephew’s christening.
11. Princess Anne has been overlooked
The life of Princess Anne has so far reflected: she is a formidable force. But despite her sterling reputation, she had been overlooked for most of her life.
Her older brother, Prince Charles, had been overshadowed and later became even more redundant in terms of successes when her younger brothers were born.
Anne was born when sexism was at its peak. It was not only about those times, as even today, but she’s also often overlooked.
Popsugar analyzes how Anne’s fascinating life has not been given coverage, and how her life has been left out in “The Crown” — the Netflix drama. Princess Anne’s character serves just as a prop for other characters.”
Several people agree that her contributions and details from the biography should be valued as she had done a great deal of work. But sadly, she is very underrated.
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