Princess Anne is a firm favourite and her no-nonsense attitude has been consistent over the years. Even amid one of the Royal Family’s most controversial moments in recent years, she didn’t deviate from what people have come to expect from her, with a characteristically frank response.
When Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry decided to quit life as working royals, the announcement came as a surprise to much of the public, and shockwaves were felt around the nation at the seeming division within the House of Windsor. However, Princess Anne made her thoughts on the matter abundantly clear and didn’t hold back when speaking to royal author Katie Nicholl.
Anne sat down with the author and royal expert for an interview with Vanity Fair not long after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had made their shock announcement. While she wasn’t directly asked by Nicholl about the couple’s royal exit, she discussed her choice not to give her own children Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall royal titles or the HRH style.
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” Anne told the publication, “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
Whilst Harry and Meghan’s move to step back as working royals was controversial in some quarters, Anne’s matter-of-fact statement seemed to throw support behind the couple to rid themselves of the HRH style and working royal responsibilities if that’s what worked best for them and their family – just as she did for her own children.
Peter and Zara have never been working royals, although they have regularly attended important family events over the years, and are known to be seriously close with the senior working royals, they have always been private citizens, enabling them to choose their own paths.
Zara followed in her mother’s footsteps as an equestrian, winning Sport’s Personality of the Year in 2006 and winning a silver medal in the 2012 Olympics. Peter was widely reported to be the favourite grandchild of the late Queen Elizabeth and is a businessman.
Neither Zara nor Peter receive taxpayer funding because they do not hold royal titles, or represent the crown in any official capacity.
In the same interview, Anne spoke about her daughter’s sporting achievements in glowing terms, “Zara was always a natural and it was really a question of whether she felt that was something she really wanted to do, and she did and she was very thorough and applied herself to it. So she was quite rightly very successful.”
