Generally, the Windsors only go all-out for their landmark birthdays – 21, 30, 40, 50, etc. Is 75 a landmark birthday? I think so, but Princess Anne disagrees. She will be 75 on August 15th. The Times decided to publish an early-birthday piece, I guess because Anne will be on vacation on her actual birthday. This piece coincided with the (almost) one year anniversary of Anne’s terrible and mysterious head injury – she was found unconscious in a field on her estate, and she had a significant concussion. She was so severely concussed that they kept her in the hospital for nearly a week and she still has no memory of anything that happened. I still say that the concussion changed her – her personality doesn’t seem as “sharp,” and there’s a softness and vulnerability to her in the past year. I bring up Anne’s injury because it’s referenced at length in this Times piece, and there’s also a terrific piece of gossip about how Anne thinks Prince Willian is lazy AF. Some highlights:
She doesn’t want a fuss for her birthday: “She told us she would do things for birthdays that had ‘zeroes, but not for the fives’.”
Retirement plans: She plans to follow in Prince Philip’s dutiful footsteps and retire in her tenth decade. A source close to Anne said: “She has said her plan is to push on [with work] until she is 80, then start winding down a bit, and then copy the [late] Duke of Edinburgh and wind down completely at 90….The head of state has to go on but the princess is in a position where she can wind down and say, ‘I’ve done my bit’, just like the Duke of Edinburgh did. She would like to do it while she is still in reasonable health and she can enjoy some time at Gatcombe [Anne’s home in Gloucestershire]. A driving force is also Tim, [Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Anne’s husband], who is very supportive of her. One of his main concerns has always been that she doesn’t burn herself out.”
Her accident last year: “Her accident was so much worse than anyone let on and it took quite a while for her to feel herself again.”
Her thoughts on Prince William: She returned to work three weeks after the accident, sporting a black eye, prompting a rare personal message on X from the Prince and Princess of Wales, acknowledging her work ethic: “Super trooper! So great to see you back so soon. W&C x.” Prince William is known to admire his aunt’s devotion to duty and Anne is fond of her nephew and will support him as King in the future if she is still working when he accedes to the throne. But several sources close to the princess note that she would like to see him do more of the “bread-and-butter” royal engagements. Only the King, Anne and William do investitures, many of which take place at Windsor Castle, near William’s Windsor home, Adelaide Cottage. A source close to Anne says: “She’s still doing most of the investitures [at Windsor] even though William lives there. It annoys her.”
Prince Harry should call Anne rather than his therapist: “He really ought to talk to Princess Anne,” the friend said. “She often talked about how, as children, she was treated so differently from Charles. She was second to him and kicked further down the line of succession as a woman, but she forged her own path. In her twenties she was bolshy and upset about a lot of things, but she came through that. He should talk to her about her experiences. She is shrewd. She could tell him a lot about what she went through.”
The thing about “Harry should talk to Anne” is so f–king weird. Like… by Harry’s account and his actions, he adores his aunt but he doesn’t know her very well. He also lives in California and has no plans to live in the UK ever again. What is Anne going to say to him? “You should give up your Montecito mansion so that your brother can bully and abuse you?” Enough. Speaking of William though… lmao, “several sources close to the princess note that she would like to see him do more of the ‘bread-and-butter’ royal engagements…” You don’t say! Who would have ever thought that it would be bad for the monarchy that a meager crew of septuagenarians and octogenarians are outworking the heir and his wife? And Anne being “annoyed” that William can’t even roll out of bed and take his scooter to the castle for an investiture with any regularity… LMAO. Get him, Anne! Talk your sh-t!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Cover Images.
