Most people realize that Princess Anne was the only daughter of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II. They may not know much about her, however, because she lives a quiet life, and even on social media, she only shares some very basic and formal photos.
As far as her working life in the royal family is concerned, however, she is perhaps one of the busiest of all. She sometimes makes public appearances and when she does so, people pay attention to what she wears because she is always fashionable.
Her first marriage was in 1973 to Mark Phillips. In 1992, she married Timothy Lawrence, and compared to all the other weddings in the royal family before her, she really did something different. Princess Anne decided that she would go for a rare gem in her engagement ring but it wasn’t a diamond, and doubtless, her choice caused a stir.
Over the years, there have been many departures from the royal family and this includes Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Princess Anne has also been vocal on some of the unusual moments in her life, and we will discuss some of them below.
When Princess Anne was born on August 15, 1950, she became the third in line to the throne. Her older brother, Prince Charles, was just ahead of her but because of the growth of the royal family, she is now 17th in line.
Princess Anne was married in 1973 to Capt. Mark Phillips and she was the first out of all three children to get married. They had met when they were at an outing for horse riding in Mexico City. Although they were not seen very often in public, they did have a strain on their relationship was found out that they were having affairs with other people.
Interestingly, Princess Anne dated her brother’s wife, Camelia Parker-Bowles’ husband at the time, Andrew Parker-Bowles. They were divorced in 1992 and have two children together, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall.
The first marriage also saw a nontraditional engagement ring. The Court Jeweler reports that Philip “proposed with a Garrard ring featuring a central sapphire flanked by a pair of diamonds in 1973.”
After being divorced, she met someone else and eventually married Vice Adm. Sir Timothy Lawrence. This took place in Scotland in 1992. They have been married since but do not have children together.
PEOPLE reports that Princess Anne experienced something that most people don’t realize. On March 20, 1974, she was almost kidnapped. It took place a few months after being married the first time and she came face-to-face with Ian Ball.
Her attacker was armed and she said: “He opened the door, and we had a sort of ‘discussion’ about where or where not we were going to go,” Anne said. However, she told him it would “be much better if he just went away and we’d all forget about it.”
Ball was stopped by the police as he fled the scene. They later discovered that he was going to hold her for $4 million in ransom money.
Now that she is in her 70s, Vanity Fair reports that she still has some 500 engagements over the past few years. She packs her itinerary completely full and she isn’t anywhere near interested in retiring.
“I don’t think retirement is quite the same (for me),” Anne said. “Most people would say we’re very lucky not to be in that situation because you wouldn’t want to just stop. It is, to a large extent, the choice of the organizations you’re involved with and whether they feel you’re still relevant.”
She still gets involved with her charitable organizations, such as Save the Children. In 1990, she received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Undoubtedly, the Queen is very proud of her daughter and I think any mother would be proud of Princess Anne.
Source: PEOPLE, Vanity Fair, The Court Jeweler