While Princess Anne doesn’t get a lot of attention during her tours and trips, I would imagine most countries, especially commonwealth countries, are welcoming to Anne and her low-drama energy. Anne is currently on the Windsors’ first royal tour of 2024. She arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday and she’s flying back to Britain on Friday or Saturday. This is a no-nonsense tour with Anne, her husband Tim and their very small staff. She doesn’t need hours for hair and makeup. Of course not. Just wear a sensible bun and some flats and let’s get to work. Anne’s arrival in Sri Lanka ended up getting headlines because she was photographed carrying her own bags off the plane.
The Princess Royal has been welcomed to Sri Lanka with a dazzling performance by traditional dancers – and in true Princess Anne style, she took it all in her stride by carrying her own bags off her commercial plane. The no-nonsense princess was photographed in a warm jacket, trousers and sensible shoes as she thanked SriLankan Airlines staff before walking off the plane carrying two heavy bags.
Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, her husband, followed, also holding a couple of bags, as the couple began an official three-day visit celebrating the UK’s ties with the Commonwealth country.
The Princess is famously businesslike on her tours, as in everyday life, with a packed schedule of events covering as much ground as possible in each day. She travels with a compact team of staff, known for their organisational skills, and tries to visit as many of her patronages as possible on any overseas visit as well as representing Britain.
The Princess, 73, is now known as the King’s “right-hand woman” thanks to her support for her brother, and her reputation as one of the hardest-working royals in the King’s slimmed-down monarchy. The trip is the Royal family’s first overseas tour of 2024.
The Princess is visiting the country at the request of the Foreign Office and will begin a whistle-stop tour to mark the UK’s bilateral relations with the nation, including a meeting later with Ranil Wickremesinghe, the president, and Maithree Wickremesinghe, the First Lady.
Anne is 73 years old and she runs circles around William and Kate in every sense. Since QEII passed away, we’ve also seen how much King Charles relies on Anne, that she is his “rock,” possibly more than Camilla. Anyway, I know her thing is being no-nonsense and unfussy, but I would love it if someone could convince her to wear a different style of sunglasses. These are so unflattering. She would look good with some oversized square-framed Jackie O-style sunglasses.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Princess Royal arrive at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake at the start of her visit to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Sri Lanka. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: Katunayake, Sri Lanka When: 10 Jan 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence arrive at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake at the start of their visit to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Sri Lanka. Featuring: Princess Anne, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence Where: Katunayake, Sri Lanka When: 10 Jan 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal signs the Golden Book, for VIP visitors, on her arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake at the start of a visit to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Sri Lanka. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: Katunayake, Sri Lanka When: 10 Jan 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal during a visit to Save the Children HQ in Colombo during day one of their visit to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Sri Lanka Featuring: Anne, Princess Royal Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka When: 10 Jan 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal (centre) during a visit the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy during day two of their visit to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Sri Lanka. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: Kandy, Sri Lanka When: 11 Jan 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Sure sure Anne carries her own bags and it’s great. Meg closed the door of the car she came out of and the world almost ended. My god with this crap. She carried her own bags give her a medal.
Feel the same @susan collins. I really don’t care that Anne carries her own bags. She’s gotten coverage for doing this before. But yeah let’s all give her a big pr medal for carrying her bags. Please.
@Jais this is poor PR to cover for their family pedo. They don’t want to talk about that and they have so little that they pull this out.
Yes, pr cover for sure. But also it’s just part of Anne’s pr as the no muss get to business hard-worker that carries her own bags. The real question is but did she fly commercial? I’m assuming not and get that she has a team and security flying with her. But carrying her own bags after a private plane flight is not that much of a hardship.
The article says she thanked SriLankan Airlines staff, so I assume she flew commercial. But I’m pretty sure, even without a mention in the article, that she flew first class.
The bar of accomplishment isn’t in the floor, it’s under the building.
Nope, the bar is in hell at this point!
She handed the bags off at the bottom of the stairs so she wasn’t carrying them as she walked through the dancers, which was good.
But she also moves really quickly and her whole vibe is “Great. Saw them. Did that. Signed that. Next!” which isn’t really how to extend graciousness or appreciation for people who are welcoming you to their home and putting on a show for you.
No muss no fuss can also look like just marking off a checklist and that’s not great social skills.
@susanCollins, tell you what Susan, if there was an Olympic medal for hypocrisy and deflection the Royal family and their press pack would take gold in every event at every games. You really need heavy duty ant acids when you read this crap.
WORD.
I give you the epitome of a world we will never understand nor fathom: being praised for carrying her own bags. While I get it (compared to other royals and what they do) THIS is a world we have no inkling about. To be praised for carrying your own bags. That’s a low bar, and ironically Kate not Will can clear that bar.
Let’s not forget the Flybee stunt, where they deplaned an empty plane with empty cases/bags. Poor possums!
lol!!!!
If she has never cared enough to change that god awful hair I have feeling those sunglasses are not going anywhere 😖😔
Anne may need some super strength relaxer (reverse perm) to deal with that hair. It’s like she takes 2 seconds to whip it up in a bun, and then kills the environment by spraying 2 cans of hair spray to keep it looking so stiff.
Funny how Meghan got so much criticism for months on end for wearing her hair in a “messy” bun. Then of course Khate wore her hair the same exact way
(totally copied Meghan again) and it was considered chic and stylish, but what does the heck does Royal Family/British Tabloids call this hairstyle? Its definitely not a neat bun.
Anne acts like a regular human being hooray!. I’ve just seen Anne getting praised for wearing white gloves at the state dinner in Sri Lanka like her mother. More like Anne stuck in the 1950s like her mother.
Wow. What world-changing accomplishment will we hear about next? That she squeezes her own toothpaste onto her own toothbrush?
Sure looked like carry on bags to me. We all carry off our carry on bags off the planes!! Well done, Anne.
She is carrying 2 heavy bags? They don’t look that heavy to me. And Sir Tim is said to be carrying 2 bags where I only see one. They seem to be carrying their carry-on stuff like everybody else in the world does. Maybe this is all they brought since only 3 days, but they aren’t carrying any heavy luggage. Does she bring gifts to those she meets with? It would have to be small to fit in those bags. Maybe a picture of herself like Ed and Sophie did? Or maybe she just expects to accept gifts? That is a commercial flight? Where are the other people exiting the plane? Does everyone else have to wait until they exit or do they wait until everyone else is off for their photo op?
Tim’s just carrying one. I noticed that, too. Seems to me he could have taken one of two bags from his wife for her. That whole Telegraph article was so poorly written, the editor in me was making corrections & doing re-writes as I read it. I thought the Telegraph was supposed to be a good paper, but if that’s what passes for acceptable I’m really beginning to doubt the much-vaunted English school system.
Sigh.
I do wonder where she gets her energy from. I’m 41 and my long Covid has been an a$$hole recently so I am jealous.
But in other news – ok? Like she’s all business but does that make her a fun guest at these schmoozy events?
Her fashion at least would never compete with the hosts of the country she is visiting or the guests of her country. *cough keen Korean khate cough*
I wouldn’t mind a makeover or at least accessories that went with her style.
THE REAL QUESTION THOUGH.
is she carrying bags of cash as her luggage? Inquiring minds and all that.
Ha! Pretty sure the English royals only receive bags of cash, never bring bags of cash. They just bring framed pictures of themselves.
By not doing much else. You’d have more energy too.
Geez. I do this all this everytime I travel.
Yeah, but you’re not from a divinely ordained family of grifters. Everything’s relative after all.
Too bad WandK’s team didn’t take “organization” lessons from Anne’s team 🙄
The difference between Anne and her brothers is that Anne grew up firmly knowing her place in the world. She was never going to be Queen. I do have respect for her for not spending her entire life bitter and entitled like Andrew and (to a lesser extent) Edward. And Charles really as well.
Her mother brought a huge estate and gave her whatever she wanted. She has very little to be bitter about except being place after her younger brothers in the line of succession because she was a woman.
I’d be more impressed if I saw her picking up heavy suitcases at baggage claim. But, whatever. Let’s see if Will and Kate follow the lead on their next trip.
She flew all the way to Sri Lanka for three days? They’re not adding on another country or anything? That’s interesting considering William couldn’t fly to Australia for the World Cup….
Anne has always seemed no-nonsense and self-sufficient* so carrying her own bags fits with that.
*self-sufficient for a royal, which is very different thing than self-sufficient for anyone else, LOL.
The real issue is that this trip will get minimum publicity because Anne and her husband do not attract interest. They are bland and boring. Do we know why she is actually in Sri Lanka? Is she really happy to be there? I don’t think Anne is interested in cultural dancing.
H&M would have done this much better but the toxic royal rota would have turned it in to something else.
Boy, their travel outfits are the very essence of bland! They are perfectly suited for each other.
Interesting, closing your own car door brakes royal protocol, but acting as your own Sherpa does not.
Royal protocol is so hard to figure out
I was just commenting that! What happened to the protocols? The white royal can’t break it?
I also saw pictures of her getting on the plane in something very “Meghan wears Cuyana.”
So…Meghan gets lynched tabloid style for closing her door, followed by an entire weeks articles on why that was dangerous. Anne carries her bags and gets loads of press about how no-nonsense she is, but sure tell me again that Meghan was treated fairly by the racist UK tabloids
I like her no nonsense work ethic, but the sharp tongue and verbal put downs of people that irritate her are not classy. She doesn’t suffer fools, for sure, yet she openly tolerates Andrew at hunts and other engagements so go figure.
I always have wondered why she doesn’t have a decent hair cut or hair dresser or hair products? They make products for hair that looks dry and frizzy!
Anne is back at work, what are the Prince and Princess of Wales doing?
Be good to see that question framed in tomorrow’s UK media!
All comments further above noted, but at least Anne is a safe pair of hands: she is sincere about her work, serious, genuinely interested and not condescending. How do W&K get away with being so far below her standards? How?
I admit that I like her white outfit, but she doesn’t get a cookie for carrying her own bags off a plane, like us mere mortals.
FFS. These people are not special.
I was just going to say the same: her white-on-white outfit is good stuff. Stylishly chill, and it fits her overall vibe.
My son is in Sri Lanka atm and got engaged whilst there…future father in law has upgraded them on the way home… same flight Anne is on. So the real question is will they be bumped to coach? I have told him to be vigilant and come back with gossip…. Well to be fair I have asked fiancée she is more likely to know what is going on. I will report back if there is anything worth reporting.
LRB, it’ll be interesting to see if they know anything. Keep us posted.
Here from srilanka. Her arrival is not a big thing here. We are preparing for ‘thai pongal’, a tamil festival. She is currently in north. Her visit is just a piece of information thats all. Even edward and sophie didn’t make it. We are mad about cricket not royals. Not many people in my district trincomalee know this. We are busy buying things for festival on 15th which is a national holiday. And nobody reported here about her luggage carrying stunt. It is considered just like a local minister visiting. People don’t care. And her dresses are too ugly. Not what people expect. Even i have to search local news papers and tv news to write this.
Oh wow. The Pedo’s sister carried her own bags. I wonder what Anne’s thought are on the subject of child sex trafficking.
The bar for expectations is so low for these people.
The bar is so low, now we praise royals for carrying some of (their) bags?!
Video of the arrival just barely shows Anne handing her bags off to someone as she steps off the air stairs. Which makes me wonder why she needed to carry the bags down the stairs if someone was going to collect them for her.
But at least she’s still going strong at 73. Her aunt, Princess Margaret, died at age 71.