Princess Anne’s no-nonsense approach to royal life extended to her own children especially during their highly visible appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
The Princess Royal made sure Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips were impeccably behaved whenever they stepped out for occasions such as Trooping the Colour, royal weddings, or other official celebrations.
According to Peter his mother had two unwavering rules for these moments in the royal spotlight.
Speaking in an ITV documentary marking her 70th birthday, he recalled: “You’d get a clip round the ear and be told, Right, behave yourself. We’re going out on the balcony. Don’t pick your nose, and don’t yawn.”
In 1987, during an RAF flypast, the Princess was even spotted gently but firmly reining in a lively four-year-old Prince William on the Buckingham Palace balcony, proving her authority extended well beyond her immediate family.
As she approaches her 75th birthday, Anne remains celebrated as both the monarchy’s hardest-working member and one of its most down to earth figures.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2020 for her 70th birthday, she reflected on her commitment to preserving royal tradition, describing herself as “the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back saying, Don’t forget the basics.”
She acknowledged that her efforts may not always resonate with younger generations, adding: “I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past… You don’t necessarily look at the previous generation and say, Oh, you did that? or You went there?”
Anne stressed that representing the monarchy means meeting the public with energy and warmth, regardless of one’s mood.
“You must be nice and bright and cheerful, even if you may not necessarily feel like it,” she added, noting that this skill doesn’t “come that easily.”
“Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh, let’s do it a new way,’” she remarked.
“And I’m already at the stage of, Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics.”
