10 Rumors About Princess Anne We Couldn't Ignore

Princess Anne is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. She holds a major role in the royal family, serving not only as a senior member, but also is the patron or president of more than 300 organizations and charities. Anne was born in August 1950, after brother King Charles III. Brothers Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were born in 1960 and 1964 respectively. Anne's life has been one filled with service, as she's known as the hardest-working member of the royal family. Of course, that role has come with plenty of curiosity from royal watchers across the globe. The royal family are notoriously private and the same holds true for Anne. Despite not being in the line of succession, there have been plenty of rumors about Anne over the years — some of which she's addressed and plenty more that she hasn't.

Despite Anne's interesting personal life — for starters, she dated Andrew Parker Bowles in 1970, and he later went on to marry Camilla Parker Bowles who would later divorce him and marry King Charles, Anne's brother — the majority of the online discourse has surrounded Anne's role within the monarchy and the relationships she has with her family members. Anne has always carried herself with poise and grace, but there are some rumors we simply cannot ignore.

In recent years, there has been a decent amount of chatter about whether or not Princess Anne might take a step back from her royal duties and perhaps enjoy her life in a different way. Chatter about Anne's future within the monarchy and retirement seemed to kick into high gear after she was injured in an accident at her home in 2024. An avid horse rider, the Princess Royal was hospitalized following an accident that left her with minor injuries and a concussion. She has no recollection of what transpired, though it's believed that she suffered impact from the horse's head or legs.

In January 2025, Anne told the Press Association, "I know where I thought I was going and that was to go to the chickens, no, nothing to do with horses. [Seeing the chickens was] my regular visit, I don't have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way. It just reminds you, shows you – you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover" (via BBC News). Despite the scary incident, Anne has no plans to retire. In the same interview, she was asked if she intended to scale back any of her upcoming engagements at age 74. "I don't think there's a retirement program on this particular life. It really isn't written in, no. It isn't really an option, no, I don't think so," she replied.

Author Georgia Arianna, also known as Lady Colin Campbell, caused a bit of a stir when she took to her YouTube channel to address a claim made by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during their earth-shattering interview with Oprah Winfrey. "In the months when I was pregnant [with Prince Archie], all around the same time, so we have in tandem the conversation of he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born," Meghan said in the March 2021 sit-down (via CBS News), shocking Winfrey — and the watching world. From there, many people have speculated about who within the royal family was part of that conversation. Well, according to Campbell, Princess Anne was involved — but if you ask Campbell, Anne never actually referenced the color of Meghan or Archie's skin.

In the video, Campbell claimed that before Harry and Meghan tied the knot, Anne expressed that she was worried about Meghan being "superficial" and "culturally ignorant." And apparently, this snowballed. Campbell continued, "I'm awfully sorry that Harry decided on the slimmest of hints about culture that it referred to color, and that concerns about the disastrous effects of allowing somebody of that ilk, character wise, into the family, would not only cause trouble for all of them but also for any child born of the union."

Following the Oprah interview, Harry went on "60 Minutes" and clarified that he and Meghan didn't believe the unnamed royal's remarks were racist, but a result of "unconscious bias." The Princess Royal has never publicly commented on this matter.

Princess Anne might be King Charles III's younger sister, but she's supposedly not afraid to show her disapproval when she doesn't agree with something that he does. One thing that Anne is rumored to be upset with Charles over is the way that he's handled Prince Andrew amid all of his scandals. In 2024, reports about Andrew refusing to move out of the Royal Lodge surfaced. In August of that year, The Sun reported that Charles dismissed the security staff at the Royal Lodge. "Everyone is speculating this means the Duke will have to leave the Royal Lodge because what other reason could there be to take his security away?" a source told the outlet, adding, "It isn't a secret that the King wants him out."

The monarch's decision supposedly upset his other siblings, including Princess Anne. "This situation with Andrew and the Royal Lodge has somewhat divided the family," a source told Woman's Day Magazine (via the Mirror). The unnamed source claimed Anne, Prince Edward, and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, all took issue with how Charles handled the Andrew issue.

There has been an ongoing rumor that Princess Anne, with her traditional values and her resounding respect for the monarchy, is the only hope for the future of the royal family. In fact, after King Charles III announced his cancer diagnosis in February 2024, many looked to Anne to step up — and she did. Not to mention, at that time, Prince William was also faced with his wife's own cancer diagnosis and treatment in addition to raising three young children. For many, their sights were set on the Princess Royal and she quickly seemed to become the person who would more or less carry the torch for her family.

In a March 2024 chat with the New York Post, Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell said that he believes the royal family will have to lean on Princess Anne now more than ever. "William is too tied up with his family: he likes to be very hands-on, which he inherited from Princess Diana. Princess Anne will be 'Anne the reliable.' She is a workhorse, she is stoic, she is reliable, she is everything the royal family needs and she is her father's daughter. His work ethic was the same. He never veered away from anything and always hit things straight on," Burrell said. "Princess Anne may rely on the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, who are very responsible too, but everybody knows Princess Anne, she has always been there. She can hold the fort in any crisis so for the time being her workload is increasing which she doesn't mind. She just gets on with it."

Princess Anne was on hand to support her older brother at his coronation, held on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey, eight months after the death of her mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Anne was also given a special role at the coronation, serving as Gold-Stick-in-Waiting — a ceremonial bodyguard, if you will. "I have a role as the Colonel of the Blues and Royals in the Household Cavalry regiment as Gold Stick. And Gold Stick was the original close protection officer. So that is a role I was asked if I'd like to do for this coronation, so I said yes. Not least of all, it solves my dress problem," the Princess Royal said during an interview with CBC News. 

The coronation also marked a return to the UK for Prince Harry, who stepped down as a senior working member of the royal family in 2020. During the ceremony, Anne was seated in front of Harry and she wore a tall, bicorne-style military hat that blocked the Duke of Sussex's view. It didn't take long for rumors to circulate suggesting that this was done on purpose or with malicious intent. However, that didn't seem to be the case. As Robert Hardman writes in "Charles III: New King. New Court" (via Daily Mail), these rumors were "nonsense." What's more, Anne apparently was told she couldn't remove the headpiece for the ceremony. "The hat was an interesting question. I said: 'Are you sure you want me to keep the hat on? Because it's quite a decent-sized hat.' And the answer was yes. There you go. Not my choice,'" Anne was quoted as saying in the book.

Princess Anne might be a huge part of the royal family, but there have been some rumors that King Charles III has put a lot — maybe even too much — on her plate. In February 2024, just after the palace announced Charles' cancer diagnosis, a report surfaced that suggested that he might have his younger sister "sort out" the ongoing family feud with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. At the time, royal columnist Sarah Vine called Anne a "secret weapon" during an interview with editor Jo Elvin. "I think we should send Princess Anne to deal with Harry and Meghan...because if you got a call from Princess Anne you'd sit up jolly straight," Vine said, according to the Express UK. "If I were the King I'd say 'Anne, please just go and deal with them,'" she added.

In October 2025, a source told Radar Online that Princess Anne had no interest in getting involved with the drama. "Anne has always been about keeping her head down and focusing on her duties. She doesn't view it as her responsibility to sort out other people's messes — particularly when those difficulties stem from their own decisions," the source said.

Princess Anne and her now-ex-husband Mark Phillips welcomed two children when they were married: Peter Phillips arrived in November 1977 and Zara Tindall (née Phillips) in 1981. At the time of their respective births, neither Peter nor Zara were given royal titles, which some pundits suspected was the queen's doing. However, as Anne has made abundantly clear, this was not actually her mother's call. 

The truth is that Anne didn't want her kids to have royal titles. In an interview with Vanity Fair that was published in May 2020, Anne said that she'd hoped to afford her children a normal childhood despite their lineage. "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," she told the outlet.

The decision isn't lost on Anne's kids, who seem more than happy not to have royal titles. "From my point of view, I was obviously very lucky that my mother didn't give us any titles, so I really commend her on that," Tindall said on a December 2023 episode of "The Total Sport Podcast." "We were very lucky that we got to do it a bit our own way. My family has a great work ethic as well, which I'm hoping they instilled in me, and is still going to this day," she added.

There have been plenty of rumors about how the royal family feels about Prince Harry's wife, Meghan Markle. One of those rumors suggests that Princess Anne wasn't a fan of the Duchess of Sussex and didn't think her marriage to Harry would last. As the story goes, when Meghan first entered the royal fold, she sought out the Princess Royal's advice, and the conversation was apparently more than she bargained for.  "Apparently, Meghan left her meeting with Princess Anne dumbfounded. 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," royal expert Neil Sean told the Royal Observer in October 2024. He also said that a source claimed to him that Anne and Meghan never clicked, adding, "Anne always knew that Meghan would have a very short shelf-life in the world of the British monarchy."

Princess Anne has made comments about the royal family as a whole, and some people have taken them as thinly veiled digs at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. However, she's never made negative public comments about the couple directly, regardless if she agrees with their decision to step down as senior working members of the royal family or not.

Another fascinating rumor suggests that Princess Anne was against Camilla Parker Bowles becoming queen consort. "Like many people who didn't know Anne well, Camilla found her frosty demeanor difficult and somewhat unnerving to cope with," Angela Levin wrote in "Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall: From Outcast to Future Queen"(via OK! magazine). "Anne was, for many years, opposed to the idea of Camilla being granted the title of Queen Consort," Levin claimed, adding, "Camilla will never be a true queen." Camilla became queen consort when her husband, King Charles III, took the throne in 2023.

While it's not exactly clear where the rumors originated, Princess Anne has only praised Queen Camilla in any public situation where the topic has come up. "I've known [Camilla] a long time off and on. Her understanding of the role and how much difference it makes to the King has been absolutely outstanding," Anne said in "Charles III: Coronation Year," according to OK! She continued, "This role is not something that she'd be a natural for, but she does it really well. She provides that change of speed and tone, that's equally important." 

It's no secret that Princess Anne was close to her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and fiercely protective of her, so it wouldn't be too surprising if this rumor was true. Following the January 2023 release of Prince Harry's memoir "Spare," Anne was allegedly unhappy with her nephew due to his writings upsetting her mum. "Princess Anne is a very straight down the line and blunt sort of person," royal expert Jennie Bond said, according to OK! magazine. "She says what she thinks she doesn't pretend anything. She is probably like her late mother as Queen Elizabeth could always compartmentalize everything she was told," she added. 

However, Bond suggests that Princess Anne was feeling some type of way when she saw Harry at King Charles III's coronation. "It was entirely natural to stop and chat with her nephew with whom, I think, she got on pretty well over the years rather than cause some kind of public scene. It was better to be amiable but I am quite sure that deep down Anne has been absolutely furious with Harry for upsetting her mother, his grandmother, so much in her last years," Bond said. Meanwhile, in October 2025, a source told Radar Online that Anne has essentially washed her hands of the Prince Harry mess. "Had Harry sought guidance on life as the second-born, Anne would have been the ideal person to turn to. But since he's made plain he doesn't wish to embrace that role, she considers the issue finished," the source claimed.