Princess Anne turns 75 years old tomorrow, August 15th. It’s really surprising that she’s a Leo, honestly. When I think of Leos, I think of movie stars, presidents and athletes – people who love the spotlight, people who crave attention. Anne has always moved quietly and refused to be glamorous. The one thing Anne did allow was a special “birthday portrait” to be released by Buckingham Palace – a simple photo of Anne and her husband Tim Laurence at the Macrons’ state banquet last month (see above). Anyway, most British outlets are marking Anne’s birthday with special coverage about how she’s very hard-working and popular. The Telegraph’s piece is “Princess Anne at 75: The best queen we’ll never have.” She honestly would have been much more suited to the big job, so much more than her brother Charles. An excerpt from the Telegraph’s coverage:
Half of the population seems to have met her, or had a relative who did. Almost all are quite sure she thoroughly enjoyed their conversation, probably her favourite of that day. At the age of 75, as she celebrates her birthday on August 15, the Princess Royal can be quietly satisfied with her contribution to public life.
“She’s got what I think we all hope for in middle age,” says a source who knows her well. “Enthusiasm for everything, an understanding of how the world works, and still contributing.”
…The past few years have not been easy. The death of her father and then her mother, a serious head injury, which she has said left her “very close” to not being “compos mentis”, her elder brother’s cancer diagnosis and the eyes of the public turning to her to step up – none of it can have failed to make its mark. But the Princess, one of a generation of the Royal family whose unofficial motto has been “Just get on with it,” has carried on.
Her final full day of work before her birthday crammed in visits to a Liverpool stable, a Cheshire oat miller and an animal feed factory. “She does not,” says a friend, “enjoy fuss.”
“She’s very approachable, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly – which in my world is a good thing,” says Lord Sebastian Coe, who came to know the Princess as a fellow Olympian and worked with her closely at the International Olympic Committee and during the London 2012 Games. “She is more often on receive than transmit. When she does say something, it’s always on point and additive: she doesn’t speak for the sake of it.”
Ask a fan at one of her engagements, and they will frequently call her the “best queen we’ll never have” or suggest that she “should be queen”.
“I’m not so sure about that,” says one friend now, thoughtfully. “She is very good at the job she has.”
“She’s got what I think we all hope for in middle age.” 75 years old is NOT “middle age.” She should be retired! Like, I understand that she’s a workhorse and she probably wants to keep busy, but it’s ridiculous that there’s an expectation that she will continue working to this extent, deep into her 70s. Especially after the traumatic brain injury – complete with profound memory loss and a change in personality – last year. They sent her out in public when her face was still bruised! I will never forget that. Anyway, I hope Anne has a nice birthday and she decides to take it down a notch in the coming years.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images. Birthday portrait courtesy of Chris Jackson for Buckingham Palace.
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- The Princess Royal during a visit to the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) National Championships at Hartpury University and Hartpury College in Gloucestershire Featuring: Anne, Princess Royal Where: London, United Kingdom When: 12 Jul 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal arrives for a visit to the South African Riding School for Disabled Association (SARDA)while on her two-day to trip to South Africa. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: South Africa When: 21 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Princess Royal makes a speech during a service to officially open the new Labour Corps Memorial at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWCG), Company’s Garden in Cape Town during her two-day to trip to South Africa. The memorial honours over 1,700 members of South African labour units, predominantly black South Africans, and is the first memorial on the continent of Africa honouring those who served in non-combat roles in the military labour units during the First World War. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: Cape Town, South Africa When: 22 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The 2025 Royal Welsh Show held at the Royal Welsh Showground returns to Builth Wells, where the show continues to be the biggest agricultural show in Europe Featuring: Princess Anne inside the Horticulture tent Where: Builth Wells, Wales, United Kingdom When: 21 Jul 2025 Credit: Joann Randles/Cover Images
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- The Princess Royal visits the rehearsal for this year’s Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an annual series of military tattoos performed by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and international military bands, and artistic performance teams on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in the capital of Scotland. The event is held each August as one of the Edinburgh Festivals. Featuring: Princess Anne Where: Edinburgh, United Kingdom When: 30 Jul 2025 Credit: Jane Barlow/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I have to agree she is the best queen they will never have. She has a great work ethic and she does just get out there and get it done. Her nephew could learn a thing or two from her but he is too lazy to bother to learn!
They’ll trot her out like they did to her mother. Qll was 96 with cancer and they kept pushing her out to do “work” even her son used her frail state to make his mistress the next Queen.
I too hope that Princess Anne has a lovely birthday and is able to rest and enjoy her senior years.
I guess 75 is the new 55, especially when your parents almost reached 100.
Happy Birthday, Anne!
I don’t know if she’d be that much better at being King than her brother, Charles works just as much as Anne does-he’s always been a work horse too but as he should be as Prince of Wales. She just seems to have done slightly better in her personal life, although she didn’t have all the media scrutiny that makes people lose their minds and stab everyone in the back.
She was also extremely petulant, had a disastrous first marriage with real and alleged infidelity on both sides, spent tons of money on horses and land, etc. These people are reacting to the 30 year campaign to rebrand her after her first divorce and remarriage. She benefitted from being protected by Philip and not being the heir.
She suffered from the infidelity of her first husband and his having a child while still married to her…the tabloids tried to muddy them – she was the first of QE2’s children to get a divorce – but she clammed up and unlike her brother, she married someone who was service minded…not a gossipy housewife in bed with the rats.
She suffered from infedelity, but she seems to have her own affair to, with her bodyguard Peter Cross. And later with Tim when she was still married.
re: Tim Lawrence, again a result of circumstances.
I definitely think Mark cheated first but Anne definitely did too. But, had Tim’s letters to her not been stolen and publicized they probably would’ve stayed married. She and Mark still get on very well and he lived at Gatcombe with his second wife for decades before giving Ashton Farm to Zara and moving to the US.
All of this praise for Anne is an indictment of William as she continues to outperform his grudging lack of effort at public service. She is the safe pair of hands but it is William who will be our next monarch not her. Yet she outperforms him despite him being half her age. She will show up respectfully tomorrow at VJ day because it is a significant national day of commemoration. Interestingly the contrast between Anne and Will is implicit. If Will continues to shirk and treat public service as a grim chore that he’d like to avoid as much as possible then the chorus of disapproval will increase.
No one turned to Anne after Charles’ diagnosis; everyone turned towards the heir to the throne, who refused to work.
By describing Anne as middle aged is the Telegraph trying to trick the public into thinking she’s younger than she is? On average Anne “works” about 60 days a year. So she’s not really the work horse the press wants us to believe she is. According to Roya Nikkhah Anne plans to slow down when she’s 80 and retire at 90 like her father.
By that metric, it’s implying that the Wales are still “young” and not ready to take the reigns yet.
Wow did she break her nose as part of the Head injury? her nose looks crooked . Poor thing i hope there are no lasting effects
The problem is Anne cannot take it down a notch because the other lot, aka Willi and Kate, do not take it up a notch.
Anne’s necklace/tiara reminds me of the piece from The Affair of the Necklace. Looks antique.
Yes, Anne would have been more regal than Chuck so primogeniture sucks for the country.
It is antique. Don’t know its whole history but her parents bought it for her for her 18th. It’s her go to formal necklace as it’s her own property.
It’s Schrodingers queen though isn’t it? If she had been born first and allowed to be the heir at the time she’d have been treated very differently. Some of her character would have remained I’m sure but she’d have grown into a different person.
Also, while she gets huge engagement numbers she’s very good at doing multiple short events and then she goes home to her horses. I don’t begrudge her that at 75 (she absolutely should be allowed to retire) but it’s been her MO for a long time.
I did chuckle at the line about everyone has met her or knows someone who has – my dad’s an artist and in the 80’s and 90’s used to sell his pictures at the craft fairs that go with the agricultural/county fairs and he sold pictures to Anne and Margaret.
Schrodingers queen is a brilliant phrase. Thank you! It’s just what I was trying to express, but couldn’t get right.
Your dad – so, you’re one degree from touching royalty!
I remember somewhere that Queen Elizabeth would not abdicate because she felt being a royal was her duty and she wasn’t going to quit.
Seems Anne believes the same. Willy… missed those genes. Or threw so many tantrums the genes just gave up. (Yes, I know that’s not how it works!)
I’m guessing Anne has a lot of planets in Virgo.
“Especially after the traumatic brain injury – complete with profound memory loss and a change in personality – last year.”
Was this change of personality for the better. Please explain, inquiring minds want to know.
Exactly. Profound memory loss seems terrible and how did her personality change? Shes always been cold and dry,
Ha, you’re right there.
Hard working, yes but a cold imperious woman. Facially as she ages resembling Prince Philip.
It’s a lovely photo. Formal dress but relaxed and warm. They both look very happy.
She would have been better, I think.
I’m a Leo (birthday tomorrow) but am an extreme introvert who doesn’t like to leave my house. Seriously, I rarely leave my house because I hate encountering people. When I venture out for exercise, I walk my suburban neighborhood after dark so I don’t encounter any neighbors. I hate attention and the only performance I’ll give is in conversation with my own family at the dinner table. Maybe the Leos should trade me in for someone else.
Happy birthday for tomorrow, Felicity!
I don’t like her any more than all the other leftovers!
She may “work” harder ( definition of work in that dysfunctional family) but she’s just as nasty, haughty as all of them. She does not exude kindness like QEII did. Won’t even fake kindness as part of her “royal job”. Probably because she thinks she’s entitled to show disdain as she’s above all the plebeians whose taxes allow her to live her royal life. Nasty comments about H&M, and like Richelieu she pushed Charles to throw H&M out of their home gifted by QEII!
No, don’t like her. Same as all those snakes of the Firm.
I can raise my hand as a member the demographic proxy to an IRL encounter with Princess Anne! LOL. My mother and stepfather were invited to the farm next door to our house in the US (it was a polo farm, and the owners’ son and I went to the same boarding school) when she was staying there at one point in the 1990s. It wasn’t a big society event, she was just staying for a few days and they were invited to a dinner one night with a few couples from the neighbourhood. They were expecting big security and lots of pompous manoeuvring and they were so jazzed when they got back home to report nothing of the kind — just a lovely warm person, she was totally disinhibited and frank and very kind, and for security, they said she had one guy with a walkie-talkie hanging out in the kitchen. Low maintenance. I can see exactly where she got the best of both her parents.
Nice birthday photo!