Princess Anne is fairly well known by the world as Queen Elizabeth II's only daughter. Her reputation for taking a blunt, no-nonsense approach to life is refreshing in the often so formal royal family, and the untold truth is, she's really like that. Thanks to Erin Doherty's memorable portrayal of Princess Anne in The Crown, the real life royal has seen her own popularity surging around the world.
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00:00There are probably a few things you didn't know about Princess Anne,
00:04Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth's only daughter. Even if you were a devoted watcher of the crown,
00:09there's more to this princess. Here is the untold truth of Princess Anne.
00:14Most royals find themselves under the constant scrutiny of a rather fashion-obsessed press. Kate
00:19Middleton, for instance, is always having her outfits analyzed and evaluated by journalists
00:24and tabloids alike. For Princess Anne, it's no different. However, unlike some of the other
00:29royals who make it a point to showcase a brand new outfit for just about every outing,
00:34Anne doesn't seem to mind recycling a few pieces. As the Daily Mail reported,
00:39Anne doesn't just re-wear a few pieces from time to time, she'll recycle entire outfits without
00:44batting an eyelash. Apparently, Anne's fashion is all thanks to her live-in dresser, Veronica Kane,
00:50who's been with her since the 90s. Unsurprisingly, the royal family has
00:54plenty of traditional titles to pass around. One of them is the Order of the Garter,
00:59which was created by King Edward III and was inspired by King Arthur's Knights of the Round
01:04Table. The sitting monarch is able to appoint both men and women to this order, making them
01:09either knights or ladies of the garter. To that end, in 1994, Princess Anne was appointed to the
01:15order. However, as the royal Twitter account noted, instead of becoming a lady, she requested
01:20to become a knight. As Royal Exhibitions explained, this distinction was made because
01:25ladies of the garter didn't have the same status as their male counterparts. While knights became
01:30companions, ladies did not. By choosing to become a knight of the garter,
01:34Anne is held in the same rank as her brothers.
01:38Princess Anne represented England at the 1976 Montreal Olympics as a horsewoman. This marked
01:44the first time a member of the royal family competed in the Games. Anne rode Goodwill,
01:49the queen's horse, during the event. As she told the Horse Riders Journal,
01:53There was a very good chance that we might have been selected for Munich in 72,
01:57but in fact that didn't work out. So getting to Montreal and actually getting to ride was
02:02satisfying. While Anne didn't win a medal, she's certainly proven herself at other horse riding
02:07competitions, winning a gold medal at the European Championships. Anne was always determined to make
02:12a name for herself outside of her royal status, and as she explained it, riding was the best way
02:17to do so. I thought if I was going to do anything outside of the royal family, horses was likely to
02:22be the best way of doing it. Eventually, Anne's daughter, Zara Tindall, followed in her footsteps
02:28and rode at the 2012 Olympics. Princess Anne had two children with her first husband,
02:33Peter and Zara Tindall. But when they were born, they didn't automatically get titles,
02:38as titles are passed down through men. The queen offered to give them titles anyway,
02:42but Anne declined the offer. As Zara later told The Times,
02:46She was glad to be a commoner, anyway. I'm very lucky that both my parents decided to
02:51not use the title, and we grew up and did all the things that gave us the opportunity to do."
02:56In an interview with Vanity Fair, Anne explained her decision,
02:59I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that
03:03there are downsides to having titles. So I think that was probably the right thing to do."
03:07Most people seem to agree. As former Buckingham Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter said,
03:12It was a masterstroke of the princess royal when she decided not to give her children titles.
03:17Growing up as a commoner allowed Zara to thrive as her own woman,
03:21and there has never been pressure on her to conform.
03:24Princess Anne was the only woman of her generation in the royal family
03:28until Princess Diana arrived on the scene. And as some sources tell it,
03:32Anne and Diana didn't exactly get along. According to Ingrid Seward,
03:37author of the biography of Anne's brother and titled Prince Edward,
03:40Anne was indifferent to Diana from the very beginning. By the sound of things,
03:44the two women didn't have much in common. Apparently, Anne treated her with, quote,
03:48"...withering disdain," and called her a silly girl.
03:52Shortly before Diana and Prince Charles' marriage, Diana reportedly confronted Anne. As Seward shared,
03:58Diana approached Anne and tried to chat with her while she was tending to her young children.
04:02When she was struggling with two small children, she had no time for it at all.
04:06She looked up at Diana and looked straight through her. While it's impossible to know
04:11how much of this is true, it's not hard to imagine that these two very different women
04:15didn't quite get along.
04:17Princess Anne is often lauded for her royal undertakings. In particular,
04:21she's especially adept at involving herself in charity work. In fact, in 1990,
04:26her work for the Save the Children Fund earned her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
04:31As the foundation's president said in an interview for BBC at the time,
04:35"...she loves people. She has extended that love to working for helpless children in many
04:40parts of the world. That is love in action."
04:42According to the Save the Children website,
04:45Anne has been a patron of the organization since 1970. She remains involved to this day,
04:50and even took part in a special fundraiser to help children affected by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
04:56Of her work, she said,
04:58"...I am proud of my long association with Save the Children,
05:01and I am honored to succeed Her Majesty as its patron."
05:05One of the most shocking things that happened in royal history
05:08didn't actually make it into the crown, believe it or not. In 1974, Princess Anne was almost
05:14kidnapped. As People explained, Anne was in a car returning to the palace with her husband
05:19when a car blocked them. The driver of this other car, Ian Ball, fired shots that injured
05:24her private detective and her chauffeur. He then climbed into the princess' car and told her to
05:30get out. While Princess Anne was able to escape, Ball was eventually arrested and pled guilty to
05:35his crimes. Anne later recalled the attempted kidnapping in an interview with Michael Parkinson.
05:40"...we had a fairly low-key discussion about the fact that I wasn't going to go anywhere,
05:44and wouldn't it be much better if he just went away and we'd all forget about it."
05:48When most of us imagine a royal home, we imagine something incredibly grand,
05:53something like Buckingham Palace. However, as it turns out, Princess Anne doesn't exactly
05:58live like you'd think a princess would. In 2021, photos were released of her home,
06:03and people were shocked by how relatively normal it looked. The photo, which was posted on the
06:08royal family's Instagram page, showed a cozy, somewhat outdated-looking family room, filled
06:14with old ornaments, prints, books, and trinkets collected over the years. Royal fans were surprised
06:20by the low-key photo. In fact, some people even made fun of Anne for what they saw as
06:25pretty abysmal interior design taste. As the New York Post reported,
06:29one person wrote,
06:30"...and I was worried about my clutter."
06:31Another wrote,
06:32"...she needs a new sofa."
06:34The hit Netflix series The Crown follows a somewhat imagined version of the royal family's
06:39private and public lives. And while most royals claim that they don't watch the show,
06:43Princess Anne revealed in 2020 that she had watched the show. In a documentary called
06:48Anne, The Princess Royal at 70, she said that she found the early season,
06:52which followed her mother as she took the throne, to be quite interesting.
06:56However, Anne did have a few thoughts on the young Erin Dougherty who played her as a young woman.
07:01Dougherty had previously claimed that Anne's famous beehive hairstyle took the production
07:06team hours to perfect each day before filming. To that end, Anne said that she'd seen the interview,
07:11"...and I'm thinking, how could she possibly take that long? I mean, it takes me 10 or 15 minutes."
07:16Princess Anne usually keeps a pretty low profile. However, in 2019,
07:21she made headlines when one funny moment was caught on camera and went viral.
07:25During a visit from then-President Donald Trump, the Queen, Prince Charles,
07:30and Camilla Parker Bowles were seen greeting the Trumps. However,
07:33when the Queen gestured to Anne to come and greet him, she laughed and shrugged her shoulders.
07:38Many people saw this moment as pretty iconic. As one Twitter user wrote,
07:42"...the Queen chastising Princess Anne for not greeting Trump,
07:45and Anne not giving a single s---- is the mood we all need to take into today."
07:50And as Time wrote,
07:51"...while Princess Anne's refusal has been widely taken as a snub of the Trumps,
07:55it does not appear that she violated any royal protocol."
07:58And as a royal commentator told The Sun,
08:00"...it looks like she wasn't expected to take part in the greeting."
08:04Princess Anne has been married twice. But during her first marriage to Captain Mark Phillips,
08:09Anne had two affairs. Her first affair was with Sergeant Peter Cross, a bodyguard.
08:14The affair is briefly mentioned in The Crown. According to Express,
08:17the affair did happen in real life, and Cross was actually removed from her protection detail.
08:22But the affair reportedly continued anyway. Cross eventually sold the story of the affair
08:27to News of the World in 1984, after the tryst came to an end. Anne's second affair was with
08:33Royal Naval Officer Timothy Lawrence, who later became her husband. The relationship became public
08:38when private love letters were sold to the press. In the documentary The Real Princess Anne,
08:44Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Ram, who investigated the affair, said,
08:48"...they were upfront about it. They were not ashamed of their relationship."
08:52He added,
08:52"...they were clearly disturbed by the fact it had been revealed in the way it had,
08:56but they were completely open, and Commander Lawrence's only concern
09:00was trying to protect his princess."
09:02The royals are known for having their favorite foods. The queen, for instance,
09:06reportedly loves chocolate and salmon, while her late husband, Prince Philip,
09:10was more of a foodie. In 2020, Princess Anne guest-edited Country Life magazine
09:16and included a recipe for her favorite dish, deviled pheasant. As John Williams,
09:20the executive chef of the Ritz in London, told the publication,
09:24"...it's a very simple recipe. Basically, a couple of whole pheasants are poached,
09:28then taken off the bone, shredded, and kept warm in the poaching juices.
09:32Add some whipped cream, spices, and mango chutney and pop in the oven for 10 minutes,
09:36and voila! While the dish certainly looks fit for a royal, it doesn't look that difficult to make."
09:43When Princess Anne was introduced on The Crown in the show's third season,
09:47many fans were shocked by her spiky, blunt personality. After all,
09:51most young people today aren't too familiar with her story. As Vogue reported at the time,
09:56her appearance on the show gave Anne a huge boost in popularity. As the show's creator,
10:01Peter Morgan, said,
10:02So many people asked me, after she first appeared, to put more of her in there.
10:07Anne's often overlooked, but Aaron's portrayal means that everybody has fallen in love with her.
10:17He added,
10:18"...searches about her on Google went through the roof. She's now one of the most popular royals."
10:23Some royal fans disagreed with Morgan's assessment,
10:26claiming that Anne was popular with or without the show. One reportedly wrote on Twitter,
10:31The Crown may have helped a little, but she didn't need much of it.