In 2019, my mom had a medical incident and hospitalization which resulted in temporary memory loss and aphasia. It’s scary as hell to witness your family member go through that. Well, that’s what is happening with Princess Anne. Two weekends ago, Anne was walking alone on her estate, Gatcombe Park, when there was some kind of incident with one of her horses. While no one has confirmed this, my belief is that Anne’s family found her on the ground, unconscious with head wounds. Anne was immediately hospitalized and she stayed there for five days and nights before she was released last Friday. It’s said that she has no memory of what happened, and I’m also guessing that her concussion was significant. They haven’t put Anne on camera either, which tells me that her facial and head injuries are probably pretty gnarly. Well, now there’s some reporting that Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall has been left shaken by this whole incident.
Zara Tindall has been left “shaken to the core” by her mother Princess Anne’s mystery encounter with a horse which left her with a brain injury that has resulted in amnesia, according to a report. OK! Magazine says that Zara, 43, has been left freaked out by the incident which saw Anne, 73, also known as The Princess Royal, struck by a horse while she was out walking, alone, on Sunday, June 23, at her home, Gatcombe Park, in the Cotswolds. She was treated at the scene and then hospitalized for five days with severe concussion and has no idea what happened, but her doctors believe she was either kicked or headbutted.
“This is exactly what Zara’s been worried about happening for years now, but her mom hasn’t had a chance to slow down with everyone else falling apart,” a source said, referring to the catalogue of chaos that has hit the royals in recent months, with both King Charles and the Princess of Wales struck with cancer less than a year after Charles’ coronation.
The source added: “It’s really shaken Zara to the core, and she’s desperately hoping this memory loss is temporary. This has been a huge wake-up call for everyone in the family, and they’re rightfully distressed.”
Rumors have been circulating in recent days that Charles might seek to bring Zara into the orbit of the working royal family. Anne is famed for a prodigious work ethic which sees her carry out about 500 public engagements a year.
The bestselling royal biographer of the king, Christopher Andersen, previously told The Daily Beast: “The Princess Royal is 73, and, like her brother Charles obviously more vulnerable physically. Still, what is being described as a mild concussion is nothing new for Anne, or for Charles, for that matter. They have both been riding since early childhood and sustained all sorts of injuries in the process. Charles was ferociously competitive on the polo field, and Anne competed in equestrian events in the 1976 Olympics. Before foxhunting was banned in 2004, Charles and Anne both loved to ride to the hounds. All manner of bruises, fractures, sprains, dislocations, and concussions go with territory.”
I imagine Zara and Peter probably ARE quite distressed at seeing their mother this way. Anne always seemed invincible, like she was going to work full-time into her 90s like her mother. Anne was always the most capable one out of the family. Being hospitalized, not being able to remember what happened to her, being told to rest and heal… that must be so foreign to her. Anyway, it wouldn’t surprise me if Zara was called up to fill in at some events, but I also sort of doubt it will happen anytime soon. Please, the Windsors are about to take off for three months for their summer vacation.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Cheltenham Festival 2019 – Day 2 – Ladies Day,Image: 419176698, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Princess Anne,Zara Phillips,Zara Tindall, Credit line: David Sims / Wenn / Avalon
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- Zara Tindall (centre) and the Princess Royal (right) with the Duchess of Cornwall as she attends Ladies Day at the Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse.,Image: 563925302, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: PA ROTA / Avalon
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- Zara Tindall seen at day two of the Cheltenham Racing Festival at Prestbury Park in Cheltenham, England,Image: 856571820, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Jules Annan / Avalon
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- Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, attends the Easter Mattins Service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, UK – 31 Mar 2024,Image: 861374376, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: James Shaw/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- London, UK, 21 May 2024: Zara Tindall attends a Royal Garden Party organised by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London.,Image: 875182627, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Yui Mok / Avalon
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- Mike Tindall and Zara Tindall attends ‘ Federer: Twelve Final Days ‘ – Special Screening at Odeon Luxe West End in London, England. UK. Thursday 13th June 2024 -,Image: 881548342, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: Federer: Twelve Final Days – Spe, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Zara Tindall attends ‘ Federer: Twelve Final Days ‘ – Special Screening at Odeon Luxe West End in London, England. UK. Thursday 13th June 2024 -,Image: 881548380, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: Federer: Twelve Final Days – Spe, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Trooping the Colour, The Kings’s Birthday Parade, London, UK. 15th June 2024. HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, on horseback along The Mall in the Trooping the Colour procession.,Image: 881849672, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Supplied by AVALON – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photo by Amanda Rose / Avalon
Anne seems to have enjoyed good health for the majority of her life, so I imagine it is shaking to suddenly have this happen. If Zara is allowed to do royal “work” does that mean she will be expected to give up all her lucrative merching? That’s not allowed, right?
It’s allowed for the white family members. She’ll be fine.
Zara makes a lot of money from endorsement deals. She isn’t giving up her cushy life for Charles.
Agreed, she definitely has the best of both worlds. She does all the family related events but is able to make a lot of money with endorsements etc.
As for this story – I’m sure she is rattled. When your parent is hospitalized for any reason it can be jarring, but even more so if you expected another 20 years or so with that parent relatively healthy and active. Hopefully Anne is able to recover fully.
Zara isn’t an HRH so rules are probably different, but they seem to make up rules as they go along. BTW, why is Zara suddenly being considered but not B&E?
There have been innumerable articles about whether or not the York princesses will start appearing in an official capacity.
Zara’s parent has a better rep plus her closeness to Charles has been noted since childhood.
We are at that age when our parents are so much more vulnerable. So seeing your mom all banged up must be horrible. I hope Anne recovers fully. I still don’t think well of Zara.
It is scary. I have seen elderly with head injuries tha just don’t bounce back, in fact, they decline rather quickly.
That happened to my dad, who was in pretty good health. He fell in January, landed face down on his forehead. He passed away in August. Head injuries are to be taken very seriously!
Yes, it’s a bad injury for the elderly. Anne herself probably thinks old age starts at 90, but she IS old. An acquaintance had a bad fall off a horse at 70 onto her head (not wearing a helmet) and had horrible memory problems thereafter. She also went full-on MAGA after being a rabid environmentalist pre-fall, coincidentally? What is it with all the head trauma happening around the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha?
From a historical point of view, Anne’s memory is worth a lot. She is the only daughter of the longest reigning queen of england. I hope she kept a journal or we will possibly lose all of what was between mother and daughter, queen and royal princess. But on a personal standpoint, any mother loss of memory is a tragedy to her family and kids. Whether I like Zara or not.
“But on a personal standpoint, any mother loss of memory is a tragedy to her family and kids.”
So true, @StillDouchesOfCambridge. My mother has Alzheimer’s, and she loses a bit more of her memory everyday. It’s heart-shattering.
@booboocita Sorry about your mom. Sending you energy and good vibes. xx
I can’t look at Zara without thinking of her revolting face at H&M’s wedding when she was smirking at the Black priest’s sermon. She should be perpetually ashamed.
I didn’t see Zara smirk, like some of the others, especially Camilla and Kate. 🙄 Zara, heavily pregnant, dropped her mouth open as if she’d never seen the likes of a black Episcopalian minister carrying on like a black Baptist minister at a royal wedding in a COE (past the 7-minute time-limit to boot).
The Kingdom Choir members were not pleased to be left standing on their feet for 10 minutes (when they expected to stand for 3 minutes before singing). However, the choir kept their cool, with class and composure unlike many in the royal family. The Kingdom Choir soared for H&M. The minister made the wedding address too much about himself and his knowledge of Scripture rather than keeping the proceedings focused on H&M getting married. 😏
This sounds like she has lost her memory for things other than how she was injured. They can only hope that her memory returns. At her age, temporary memory loss often becomes permanent. And if she has had multiple concussions, the odds of permanent loss are even higher.
That is my impression also.. just how much memory has she lost? After a head trauma my aunt literally went back to the 70’s she lost decades and was never the same. I just can’t believe that since the start of the year they are now down three “working royals” that was only the first six months.. makes me wonder if anyone will be left by the end of the year 🫣🥴.
Maybe they should all stop whining about Harry and Meghan and figure out why the horses in the royal stable are becoming out of control. Two more horses ran the streets again, one of the guard horses head butted a tourist- In the first instance they blamed construction noise but to keep happening like this… (and Princess Anne is an accomplished horsewoman). Is it some kind of whistle? High frequency noise?
Maybe the BM should stop fretting about the ESPN awards and find whoever is handing out black eyes, bruises and head injuries to BRF members, offing a couple of ex boyfriends and a married in husband for good measure?
Ex boyfriends? Who’s this about?
Its just the reality of life with a 900-1400lb prey animal with a strong flight instinct.
They are shockingly fast in their reflexes when startled. I took a hit to the side of my face once standing and scratching the shoulder of a horse in our field. It was one I knew well. A bird flew out of a bush and the horse spun its head straight into mine.
Concussion, the force shattered one of my premolars and I was lucky that was all that happened.
That’s just one of a number of incidents over the years, and I’m a careful one.
Leigh, yes they (horses) are remarkably reactive and unstable at times. My younger child used to seriously ride and have to say was very happy when she had to give it up when she switched schools. There is nothing scarily that watching your child get bucked off by a 1000 + pound animals who was freaked out by the wind blowing by plastic bag.
shaking a plastic bag near a foal is considered best equestrian practices. so that shouldn’t spook them. but you’re right, these 1000 pound critters can get spooked and it comes with the territory.
Yes, the confrontation of parental mortality is scary. That has zippity-do-dah to do with the culling the working Windsor herd. They will keep banging on about who’s on the royal payroll and who isn’t because blissful hypocrisy is their brand.
Their next move will be to use Anne’s medical situation to “reassess” the flowchart, then announce – quelle surprise! – that they need to tweak the rules to allow half-in, half-out, or people to keep their private enterprises but still “work” for the Crown, or some such nonsense that they could have done all along.
HRH stands for Horsesh!t Royal Hypocrisy.
Horse accidents can be catastrophic, and at this point no one knows, she could have been seriously kicked by a horse, as opposed to falling off. – I’m sure Zara is very shaken. I would be if it were my mother. One of my good friends is a life long horse trainer/show rider. She would never let her mother know of all of her horse related injuries (thankfully, non life threatening) because her mother would worry endlessly about her being around them, and she had no intention of ever giving them up. She would show me large bites, kick bruises, fall bruises etc..
Truth, I have a hell of a list of my own. If you aren’t around them that much? You have no idea.
I’ll tell you this though! Horse and farm people drive doctors crazy. We only show up if its a critical injury, or 6 weeks later when we have time after doctoring it ourselves. And our pain tolerance is off the charts. Our pain scale 4-5 is a typical person’s 8-9. Calling the vet for the animals? That we will do promptly.
co-sign Leigh. I never did go for my broken foot, I used vet wrap for about 4 months. I couldn’t afford it, I had horses!
It doesn’t read like anyone least of all Anne knows what actually happened to Anne. Horses rarely if ever just come up to a person in a pasture and kick them in the head without reason, and Anne is too experienced a horsewoman to give them a reason. Horses love the people who take care of them, like dogs do.
Of course she’s worried—once Anne passes, Zara’s gravy train is over. Charles does not want ANYONE half in/out, as he would have to finance it. One reason he scaled down the royal family to begin with is to consolidate more of his wealth by not having to pay it out.
That right there is why Zara is such an ass kisser to William. She’s always been aware that cousin Willy will control the purse strings one day.
Does Anne actually own her estate or is it just a long term lease like Andrews?
Anne owns it. It was an outright bought and paid for “gift” from Lizzie.
Last year, my dad had a series of falls due to low blood pressure. He was a good actor and passed off the first couple of incidents as his typical clumsiness (even to my stepmom, who is a retired ER doctor), but I was present for the next one. He was in the kitchen, filling up his dogs’ water bowls, when his knees just buckled and he collapsed, hitting his head on the marble counter on his way down. I ran over and found him out cold. I sat there shaking him and sobbing and screaming “daddy!” for a good 5 minutes before he came to. He has no memory of it and, infuriatingly, still tries to minimize it (he was mad that I “bothered” 911!), but it was the scariest 5 minutes of my life. So I never thought I’d say this, but I truly feel for Zara on this one. I can’t be snarky about it. I’m glad the family is taking it seriously and Anne is getting the best care, and I hope she makes a full recovery.
@Miranda – how awful for you, that would have been terrifying. I sincerely hope you never have to go through that again but, if you (or anybody reading this) has the misfortune to do so, PLEASE do not ever shake someone who is unconscious to try and rouse them. If they have any kind of spinal fracture you could cause it to shift and paralyse them and you could also create further brain trauma. I’m aware that you may have written hyperbole to illustrate your story and you didn’t *actually* shake him but still my point stands. I write as someone who works in the field of spinal injuries and has seen people’s lives ruined through mistreatment of a fracture that could have been healed so I’m a bit antsy about stuff like this!
It was a bit of hyperbole, I mostly just kind of jiggled his arm. I’ll admit that I ALMOST did actually shake him, but caught myself. Thanks to my hobbies (backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering), I have tons of first aid training, so I knew better, but I kind of panicked in the moment. But as you said, it’s definitely an important rule that everybody should know, so I don’t blame you for being antsy about it!
@Miranda – thank you for your kind reply and for taking my comment in the spirit it was intended.
I salute you for the training you have done in first aid, you never know when it will come in useful!
Low blood pressure can be managed by plain old salt added to water. I have it on good authority that this works!
@Miranda Glad that your Dad is okay. That must have been terrifying! LBP (low blood pressure) is scary. I have been suffering from LBP (amongst other things) for over a decade, have passed out several times, and been hospitalized for it twice (the last one I passed out, fell and broke my ankle). I have to take potassium tablets daily to help manage it and that greatly reduced these episodes. I still have to monitor my blood pressure and when my LBP dizzy spells reoccur, like they have now, I let my doctor know – he recently adjusted some of my other medications. But just like high blood pressure, monitoring LBP is important.
It’s somehow off topic but I just realised that we are never being pelted with articles claiming that Anne is the best grandmother there is like we are with Charles. She has more grandchildren than he does and we don’t really get details like we do for the Wales children.
Charles and Anne have the same number of grandchildren (5).
Sorry, I thought Peter had three children like Zara *facepalm*.
Sarah Polley (Canadian actress & director) had a chapter in her book ‘Run Towards the Danger’ about her concussion and recovery. It was harrowing to read and made me aware how devastating concussion is to endure and recover from. The whole book is amazing actually. After reading the concussion chapter I was really angry at how our society talks about concussion and puts young athletes at risk – and is so casual about it – all for glory and money. If Anne had a concussion and if she has had head injuries before, this may be a long painful road for her. After Anne’s accident, the RR were really minimizing the potential seriousness of this.
Yes! I was thinking the same that multiple concussions add up. The story trying to minimize it by saying she’s been hurt so many times is actually not positive at all.
@Wendy, The rota and the firm always minimize health issues and injuries surrounding the royals, always! That’s what they did in regard to QE-II’s and Prince Philip’s health problems, remember? Only a little of the truth about their actual illnesses trickled out sometime after their deaths. The royal firm is always about covering things up and sweeping as much as they can under the rug that they don’t want peasants to know.
Yes! I was thinking the same about concussions. Them trying to minimize her injury by saying she’s been hurt before really isn’t a positive at all.
oops! sorry for the double comment!
Love Sarah polley and loved that book.
Zara’s not going to be called up to do anything. She has no title and she’s not a working royal. Calling her up would also contradict the Palace’s stance that only working royals are allowed to do engagements and stand on balconies. Charles is not going back on that.
Calling it a brain injury is telling. They aren’t minimizing it as “just” a concussion. “Desperately hoping that this memory loss is temporary” could be read to mean only that they hope she remembers how the injury happened, but it sounds like more than that. I wonder if she’ll be able to resume her duties. The next six months will tell the tale.
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Zara but if Anne has general memory loss it’s got to be shaking.
Sounds more like a TBI than a concussion to be honest, and that’s pretty awful.
A concussion is a TBI
🎯
This is becoming a pattern, and it’s funny people keep falling for it.
Say it with me: The BRF has found out that a foolproof way to generate unquestionably good press, as well as to minimize or squash bad press, is to write a whole bunch of illness fanfic. They roadtested it with Kate, who we now know was never anywhere as ill as they made it out she was, if she was even ill at all. They claim someone is sick or injured, deliberately go vague on details so people assume the worst, the person camps out for a long period to increase anxiety and anticipation, and then they arise a la Jesus to a triumphant media re-entry. They have all those large properties and barriers of security, so it’s much easier for them than for some other celebrity to pull this off.
They are doing this for two reasons: to generate good PR that they didn’t earn, since they’ve largely abandoned most of their charities, and also to up the asking price for pictures of various royals.
Stop buying it. As long as it pertains to the BRF, extensive documentation or it never happened.
I mean, if it was any other member, I would suspect it, but it is Anne. She is already getting good PR because she is working more than all the others combined. She doesn’t need to play any games and from what I see, she isn’t that kind of a person. She is rarely getting any PR about her work, family or how she is gonna bring peace to Middle East. Also, she cancelled a bunch of engagements because of what happened. The articles may be fanfic since they don’t have much access to Anne, but I don’t doubt what happened.
She’s never participated in the bull sit at anywhere near this level. I can’t see her agreeing to some grand charade for a distraction from what? There’s not an actual scandal right now, the royals are disappearing for the summer like they always do. Anne seems to take attending her engagements the most seriously out of the group, I just can’t see her suddenly trying to dodge them unless something actually bad happened. I hope she recovers, a head injury at that age is no joke, and as someone who lives near my similar aged parents, I feel for her.
I’m not sure that’s entirely what’s going on at the moment. KP seemed very tetchy over Timothy Laurence being shown visiting Anne in hospital and Cam’s incessant visiting of the London Clinic crimped William’s narrative too. William did not like that. The cancer announcement for Kate was markedly different to Fergie and CIII. The amount of royal and royal adjacent people getting head injuries, seen in public with black eyes and visible brusing this year as well as the parade of false imagery from KP supporting Princess Kate’s absence from the public has not ” generate unquestionably good press, as well as to minimize or squash bad press”, it’s yoked the BM to carrying the BRF’s water through injunction for ‘good press’ and work overtime on SM and royal watching media to throw fire blankets on any information traction that might lead to outing whatever is actually going on with these people.
Some core part of these different, weird BRF health/death stories stems from KP, at least, absolutely not wanting scrutiny over two of these instances but not being in a position to secret them having happened away from public reportage altogether for some other reason (because of hackers?, some outside party who could could blow their spot?). I don’t think PR can be avoided entirely because the Windsors are a public family but this feels more like BRF working hard not to provide that “extensive documentation or it never happened” through that BM system.
Anne was forced to miss a military event in Newfoundland because of this and she’s not one to cancel just for fun. Whatever happened was serious.
Now what I don’t get is how they are being vague about whether or not it was a horse that did this.
Now that’s just silly tin-foil hatting. You don’t just bash someone’s head in for good PR. Honestly…SHM
Marry Me,
I totally disagree that Kate was never ill or injured, or even AS ill or AS injured as the media would have us think. I 100% believe the coma story. It’s the ONLY explanation that makes sense to me.
Please let’s hope Zara isn’t promoted to the inner circle. Her husband is an oik.
A greedy oik.
Tindall charges £20,000.00 a day to host shooting days for corporates or individuals with deep pockets. What does he do with all the money, his accommodation at Gatcombe will be free.
I don’t mean this for Anne specifically, but rather the BRF at large: Catalogue of chaos = karma.
Is Zara wearing NAIL POLISH in the photo with the black dress??? 😱
As a member of the royal family, where are all the articles crucifying HER for this terrible crime??? We KNOW how QEII felt about nail polish!!
Also I’ve read that Anne barely works more than, say, Will & Kate pre-2024, and that she shows up to events for 10 minutes, takes some pics, and leaves. And that she’s extremely rude to us plebs.
I’m sorry, but the royals have made up so much BS to cover up other bigger BSs, nothing they say will ever sound credible to me. Isn’t Anne an excellent horse rider who used to compete professionally? Why is it that, recently, royals seem to have “accidents” only when they are alone – including the married-in who died from a head wound (?) with a gun near his body and was then hurriedly cremated?
Great point. Both Zara & especially Mike Tindall, are right up Willy’s arse!!
They know which side their bread is buttered on.