Princess Anne Talks Philanthropy, Royal Family Changes in Vanity Fair May 2020

Britain’s Princess Anne covers the May 2020 issue of Vanity Fair US, photographed by Lord Snowdon in 1969, from Trunk Archive. via Vanity Fair Magazine.

HRH The Princess Royal — known to us as Princess Anne is not known for public interviews. But she marked her upcoming 70th birthday on August 15 in a May 2020 cover story with Vanity Fair, inviting royal correspondent Katie Nicholl to shadow her for a day, culminating in an exclusive sitdown at St. James Palace.

We learned more about a young Princess Anne, in season 3 of ‘The Crown’, where she’s played by actor Erin Doherty. Rebellious as a young woman and possessed with sharp-tongue wit approaching her milestone birthday, Princess Anne is no shrinking violet. Read the New York Times November 2019 feature: ‘The Crown’: Who Is Prince Anne?”

In ‘The Crown’, we’re reminded that Princess Anne dated Andrew Parker Bowles in the ‘70s, about the same time that her brother Prince Charles became seriously smitten with Camilla. But then Camilla married Parker Bowles, driving Charles into total grief at sea. Well, we all know how that turned out, with Charles and Camilla recently celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary.

Reflecting on the fact that three of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s children are divorced, Prince Charles perhaps spoke on behalf of the entire family in Season 3 when he described the young royals love triangles as “a bit messy.”

Addendum: many of us believe that Anne’s life was glaringly dismissed in ‘The Crown’.

Image left, The Daily Mail; Image right, Express UK.

One of the best Queen Anne stories centers on a 26-year-old would-be kidnapper Ian Ball, who targeted Anne one March evening in 1974 as she rode towards Buckingham Palace with her husband of four months Mark Phillips, a Captain in the British army. Confronted by her attempted kidnapper Anne made it totally clear that it was  “not bloody likely” she’d be going anywhere with him. And she was right. For more details read a 2014 recap in Smithsonian Magazine.

Fast forward to life in Trumplandia, and consensus was that Anne was observed shrugging her shoulders and avoiding greeting US President Donald Trump at Buckingham Palace.

Headlines opined fast and furious on the decision of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to not bestow a royal title on baby Archie. In reality, Princess Anne made the same decision to break with royal tradition by not giving her own children, Peter and Zara, HRH titles when they were born.

“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” she recalled, adding, “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.” Read the entire Princess Anne interview at Vanity Fair.