While the royal family isn’t exactly known for displays of emotions, Princess Anne is considered the most stoic. She embodies the stiff upper lip and has dedicated her life to the monarchy on a level even King Charles III can’t compete with. During all this, she keeps her personal life very quiet.
Princess Anne is the second child and sole daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, who recently passed. Thrust into the public eye since birth, Princess Anne has always faithfully worked with her mother, along with being an accomplished equestrian in her younger days. Today, you can find her on many committees and boards with her current husband Timothy Laurence. Her hairstyle has been the same for several decades, and while she’s known for her steely demeanour and the discreet nature of her private life, she was once at the heart of some serious tabloid drama.
Along with Prince Charles and Prince Andrew, Anne got divorced. In the 1990s, her marriage to Captain Mark Phillips finally ended. Despite formally separating and getting divorced, Anne maintained her career and her military-esque poker face, but that’s not to say that life wasn’t hard for this royal post-divorce.
The separation that shocked the royal family
Although the tension between these spouses was no surprise, the announcement of their separation still shocked Buckingham Palace and the public. She made the decision in 1989 and started a trend of several royal marriages going downhill. The palace confirmed that Mark would move out of their Gloucestershire home, where Anne would remain with her two kids, who were only 11 and 8 years old.
The media harshly scrutinized her decision to separate and divorce
As we know from Meghan Markle’s experience, the media isn’t always kind. Her personal letters were stolen and given to the press, making for one of the UK’s biggest scandals. To get themselves out of a lawsuit, the Sun published a story with the headline, “PALACE THIEF STEALS ANNE’S LETTERS…SUN TO THE RESCUE.” In the story, they exposed the fact that Anne was writing intimate letters with someone other than her husband, whom she was estranged from at the time.
She embraced the drama when her brother was struggling in his own marriage
We don’t often see this stoic princess opting for drama, but what else can you do when it follows you wherever you go? Her brothers were experiencing their own separations at the time, and Andrew Parker Bowles accompanied Anne at the Royal Ascot that year. Many people considered this to be controversial, as Bowles was her ex-boyfriend and was married to Camilla Parker Bowles at the time.
Thanks to her brother’s drama, the spotlight went off her slightly
Right as news of Princess Anne’s separation began to die down, the public shifted its attention to Charles and Diana, who in 1992 announced they would be separating. This was three years after Princess Anne made her own announcement. The public revered Diana, but their marriage was filled with affairs and unhappiness. While Anne started to live normally again, her brother’s relationship fell into complete disarray.
A straightforward settlement
Since they had been separated for over two years, Anne was allowed to file for an uncontested divorce, which streamlined the process. She stayed at the Gatcombe with her kids, Peter and Zara, but apparently, while they were figuring out the divorce logistics, Queen Elizabeth II told Anne not to be too severe, as consistency would be a better choice for the children.
She was able to experience her new relationship publicly
Princess Anne’s relationship with Timothy Laurence became public knowledge because of the intimate letters leaked to the public. However, these two could pursue a relationship after the divorce was finalized. Before working with the royal family, Timothy worked in the navy and held a position on the queen’s HMY Britannia yacht. His employment in the 80s allowed the two lovebirds to cross paths, and they stepped out just moments after the divorce was made final, which was considered scandalous for a royal. They remarried just three months later.
They’ve kept the relationship private
They’ve kept their relationship quiet and out of the tabloids for obvious reasons. The only post-divorce insight the media has gotten was in a 2010 interview with her daughter, Zara Tindall. She said, “I look at her and just think if I were going to be a mother, that’s what I would want to be like. I would like to be as good a mother as she has been to us.” When she’s not working or attending an event, she likes to stay at home with her hubby, who makes her a nightly martini.
An amicable relationship with her ex
Despite what the rumor mill says, Mark Phillips and Princess Anne are amicable with each other these days. They always maintained decorum and have since been seen spending time together on several occasions as a happy family. Zara took after her mother’s equestrian career, and her parents often reunited for her many competitions as a united front. They’ve even joined family events with Timothy, which shows how much of the drama is in the past.
What Anne thinks about her future and the monarchy’s future
In an interview with CBC, Princess Anne discussed all the ways the monarchy could and should modernize, saying that she doesn’t agree with her brother Charles’ call to narrow down the working royals. She believes that there should be more talks about modernity at the moment, but that the monarchy provides “a degree of long-term stability that is actually quite hard to come by any other way.”
