She may be the Princess Royal, but is she also the Queen of Shade?
Harry may be breaking tradition, but Anne’s breaking bad with these two former royals.
There's no doubt that Princess Anne is a spitfire.
In 1974, when she was only 23, she was returning to Buckingham Palace when another car forced
her vehicle to stop and the man inside, Ian Ball, tried to kidnap her.
When Ball tried to get Anne out of the car to score a ransom from her family, her response
was: "Not bloody likely."
“I was scrupulously polite.”
This is who we're dealing with.
As such, she's always been a staunch protector of those close to her, especially her nephews,
Princes William and Harry.
When Princess Diana died in 1997, Queen Elizabeth II attracted nationwide scorn for her absence
from Buckingham Palace.
The British people felt that she should return to London to grieve with them, per Hello! Magazine.
What did Queen Elizabeth do instead?
She stayed at Balmoral with her two grandsons.
In a 2017 interview with ITV News, Anne praised her mother's decision because it was the best
for the boys, saying:
​​"I don't think either of those two would have been able to cope if they had been anywhere else.
They had that structure, they had people around them who could understand, give them the time,
little time that they had, which was never going to be very much, to try and come — even
in a fleeting sense — to terms with what had happened.”
Since the very beginning, she's had Harry's back and has been very protective of him.
Since family is everything for Princess Anne, Prince Harry's marriage to Meghan Markle wasn't
exactly a home run in her eyes.
At least, this is what TV personality Deborah Davies told the Daily Star, revealing:
"Princess Anne is fabulous, she just gives everything that she thinks away on her face.
She doesn't need to say anything, you can see it in her eyes."
Davies noted that Anne doesn't hide what she's thinking.
Davies said that this was especially evident at Harry's wedding, where Anne, among other
royals, was dubious about the match, adding:
"Princess Anne is just like her dad was, Prince Philip could see straight through Meghan Markle."
Anne's evident displeasure during social situations was oh-so-clear again at Philip's funeral
in April 2021.
Meghan, because of her pregnancy with daughter Lilibet, wasn't able to attend, something
that royal biographers Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie wrote about in "Finding Freedom,"
in an exclusive for E! News.
Since Harry and Meghan had rocked the boat with their bombshell interview with Oprah
Winfrey, the royal family was feeling touchy about the couple.
According to Durand and Scobie:
"In truth, several members of the royal family are understood to have been 'quietly pleased'
that Meghan stayed in California because they 'didn't want a circus.’”
In light of this, Anne evidently snubbed Harry at Philip's funeral, Express notes.
Anne and Sophie Wessex, wife to her younger brother, Prince Edward, were especially cold
toward Harry at the sad event.
True to the position of the royal family, Princess Anne avoids stating any political affiliation.
It's the family code that royals quote, "remain strictly neutral with respect to political
matters," as the Royal Family's website notes.
It was particularly distressing to Anne that she got dragged into a political debate in
2019 when former President Donald Trump visited Buckingham Palace.
As Vanity Fair reports, when Queen Elizabeth II motioned to Anne to join the lineup, the
princess shrugged her shoulders.
Many took this to mean that she was snubbing Trump when in fact, she thought her mother
was asking if there was anyone else in the lineup.
An insider explained to Vanity Fair, saying:
"The princess was unhappy to be dragged into that particular story because she has always
been careful not to be seen to be political in any way.
She is also incredibly respectful, so any suggestion that she would laugh at anyone
behind their backs was quite upsetting for her."
Meanwhile, Meghan Markle could not be more different.
In September 2020, Vogue asked whether she would become the political princess and cited
a reporter who said:
"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chimed in on the U.S. election and essentially encouraged
people to vote for Joe Biden..”
Before anyone else predicted, Princess Anne foresaw that Meghan Markle wouldn't last long
as a member of the working royals.
Royal commentator Neil Sean, using his YouTube channel, recapped a meeting between Anne and
Meghan that likely offered more tough love than Meghan was expecting.
Sean explained that Meghan requested the meeting with Anne, knowing that she has a longstanding
tradition of being one of the most hardworking royals.
Anne's wisdom to Meghan was all about understanding that royal life is service and work, not celebrity
status and glamor.
As Sean described it:
"Princess Anne reiterated this mantra, she pointed out that it wasn't a working monarchy,
it was a job, you turn up on time, you do your research, and do the duty.”
The meeting, as expected, didn't go very well.
As Sean explained, according to an inside source, Meghan Markle failed to warm to Princess Anne.
Apparently, as Sean saw it, Princess Anne always knew Meghan had a quote, “very short
shelf-life” in the roles of the monarchy.
Since a major mantra of the royal family is "Don't explain, don't complain," we don't
always know what's going on behind the scenes.
Therefore, body language becomes even more interesting when it comes to the royals compared
to celebrities who can be candid about their thoughts.
Body language expert Darren Stanton told The Wall Street Journal:
"The queen followed this very strict protocol that she was given by her father...
not to show emotion, you know, stiff upper lip.
You've got to suck it up at all costs."
While this might be the case, Princess Anne and Meghan Markle had an exchange in 2018
that was fascinating to body language experts, like Judi James, who spoke with Express.
The two women sat together at an event and had a mutually pleasant experience.
James further explained:
"[Meghan's] passion for her causes and her eloquence, plus what looks like a shared sense
of [humor], did throw up some poses where the two women looked genuinely happy in each
other's company.”
It's worth noting that this event preceded Meghan and Prince Harry's departure from the
royal family, but it does show that Meghan and Anne had a positive rapport during the
former's early days with the royals.
James also noted that this was rare for Anne and that she didn't warm, for example, to
the late Princess Diana.
As should be obvious, Princess Anne is all about hard work and family loyalty, and when
you're a member of the royal family, this translates to a busy life as a working royal.
That's not to say that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle aren't hard-working or loyal to their
families; it just means that it translated differently for them.
“I’m thinking, how could you possibly take that long?
I mean, it takes me ten to fifteen minutes.”
This manifested when they announced on January 8, 2020, that they were stepping down as senior
members of the royal family, per People magazine.
Anne gave a dig at the couple a few months later, when she spoke with Vanity Fair in
May 2020.
She admitted that she's not always a fan of change for the sake of change and says that
often, the tried and true way can be the most successful, adding:
"I don't think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past and
it's often true, isn't it?
… Nowadays, they're much more looking for, 'Oh let's do it a new way.'
And I'm already at the stage, 'Please do not reinvent that particular wheel.'"
That's about as big of a zinger as a royal family member can serve, but it's fair to
say that Anne was not impressed by Harry and Meghan's decision to step away.
Princess Anne was never enamored with the idea of the HRH title, which stands for "His
Royal Highness" or "Her Royal Highness."
While Anne is formally known as the Princess Royal, being the eldest daughter to then-monarch
Queen Elizabeth II, she didn't want her children to have the same burden.
As such, her daughter Zara Tindall and son Peter Phillips have no such encumbrances.
According to Princess Anne in a conversation with Vanity Fair:
"I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there
are downsides to having titles.
So I think that was probably the right thing to do."
As Tindall describes it, the experience was a positive one, with her sharing with Express:
"I'm very lucky that both my parents decided to not use the title and we grew up and did
all the things that gave us the opportunity to do.”
For Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, they faced a different experience with their two children,
Archie and Lilibet, since they won't get the coveted title.
As an insider described to The Sun:
"[Harry and Meghan] have been left furious that Archie and Lilibet cannot take the title HRH.
That is the agreement — they can be prince and princess but not HRH because they are
not working royals."
Clearly, the couple has very different ideas than Anne does about what "HRH" can mean for
a kid and their future.
“We’re told by the Palace that the issue of titles is going to be something that is
going to be sorted out after the official mourning period.”
After Queen Elizabeth II died, Princess Anne made history in the ways in which she honored
her late mother.
When the queen's coffin was placed in Scotland at St. Giles' Cathedral, Anne made history
by being the first woman ever to stand beside the coffin in the historic tradition called
the Vigil of the Princes.
The tradition has to do with guarding the coffin, and she was joined by her brothers,
King Charles III and Princes Andrew and Edward.
She also walked behind the coffin in the procession prior to the Vigil of the Princes, along the
streets of Edinburgh.
Anne also wore the Royal Navy ceremonial uniform; even though she hasn't served in the military,
she has honorary titles, as The Sun reports.
The experience was vastly different for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry following the queen's death.
There was considerable emphasis placed on the question of Harry wearing a military uniform
and he did not during the queen's funeral procession, CNN notes.
The reason was that Harry had stepped down from his royal duties and therefore would
not be in uniform, even after having served in the British Army for ten years.
However, King Charles III changed protocol, and said that Harry was granted permission
to wear his uniform at the queen's vigil on September 17, 2022.