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“She’s a hundred per cent, this girl.”

Colin Tebbutt, Princess Anne’s former bodyguard, when asked about her in 1983.

‘A Week in the Life of the Royal Family’ by Anthony Holden.

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Princess Anne was the first royal mother to actually change her baby’s nappies herself and not delegate the task to a servant. She also loved bathing them and the chores were shared with Pat Moss (their nanny) when her Royal duties allowed. She would wake them, see that they ate their breakfast, and bathe and dress them. Nobody who knew Anne could believe that she would prefer doing the mundane everyday chores that most mothers take for granted and that her riding was relegated to second place.

Princess Anne being a mama

‘Zara Phillips: A Revealing Portrait of a Royal World Champion’ by Brian Hoey (2007)

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“As one woman observing another, I got the impression she fancied the sound-recordist who was tall and blonde. Once, after tea on the terrace at Treetops when he was around, I watched her take clips out of her hair so it tumbled down, and I remember thinking she’d done it because it made her look feminine and attractive.”

Valerie Singleton exposing Princess Anne’s thirst recalls filming ‘Blue Peter Royal Safari’ with Princess Anne in Kenya in 1971

Unfortunately, the full episode still isn’t online, but you can see a clip from it here where Anne has a Baywatch moment and threatens to kick a monkey

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Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence leave Westminster Abbey after attending Prince Philip's Service of Thanksgiving on 29 march 2022.

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Sir Tim Laurence with his nieces, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie

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Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, Queen Sirikit of Thailand & Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

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Queen Mother with Princess Anne and Prince Phillip

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Happy Birthday Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise! (b. 15 August 1950)

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How their love affair blossomed

The Princess Royal and Commander Timothy Laurence

HELLO! Number 233 | Published: December 19th 1992 | Article 2/2

When Princess Anne's happy secret that she planned to wed Commander Timothy Laurence leaked out it brought much-needed joy to the beleaguered royal family.

One of the rare happy moments in a year of royal troubles came in May when Anne danced around a ballroom in the arms of her dashing naval officer. By “going public" with Tim just four weeks after her divorce from Captain Mark Phillips, she signalled that she was planning a future with the Queen's former equerry.

It was also her way of testing the water - to find out what the public's response might be. The general reaction was that the hard-working Princess deserved to find happiness at last after the break-up of her first marriage. But, in withholding the announcement of her betrothal until almost the last minute, Anne is once again proving that she likes to do things her way.

When she married Captain Phillips in 1973 she broke with royal precedent by insisting that her husband should not be given a title which he had not earned. This meant that her son Peter, 14, and daughter Zara, 11, have been the only grandchildren of a monarch this century who remain untitled.

Now Anne is once again setting a precedent by becoming the first divorced member of the Queen's family to marry for the second time. But, to avoid embarrassing her mother who is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, which does not sanction the remarriage of divorced people, she made the decision to wed in Scotland, because the Church of Scotland does not ban divorcées from remarrying.

And the man she has chosen comes from a vastly different background from her own. Tim Laurence is the great-great-great-grandson of a real-life merchant of Venice, called Zaccaria Levy, who in the 18th century left his home in the Italian city to forge a new life in England.

His business flourished and he became one of the first Jewish underwriters to become a member of Lloyds. In 1826, his son Joseph changed the family name to Laurence and by the next generation the family had abandoned its Jewish faith with Joseph's son, Percy, becoming an Anglican vicar.

And, at the weekend, Tim Laurence married in a Scottish village church, so different a setting from Princess Anne's first wedding in Westminster Abbey. But the Princess wants her new life to go on the way it began - out of the spotlight.

It was away from the limelight of official occasions ; that Princess Anne first began to notice Tim Laurence. In fact, they met through work - Tim was a junior officer in the Royal Navy, serving aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. But it was not until 1986, when he became an equerry to the Queen, that they really got to know one another.

The Princess, who was frequently at Buckingham Palace on official duties, could not help bumping into the quiet, well-spoken young officer. And when she needed an adviser on her work for a charitable trust she thought of Tim Laurence immediately. Although the Princess was still married to Captain Philips, she was lonely. Tim was sympathetic and the soul of discretion but they maintained nothing ; more than a friendship.

At the same time, the Queen recognised her equerry's worth by turning to him constantly for assistance on her royal engagements. She awarded his diligence in August 1989 by making him a Member of the Royal Victorian Order, MVO, a personal award.

During this period, while the world speculated about her private life, Princess Anne simply got on with her job. The Queen grieved for her daughter and appreciated the fortitude Anne displayed over such a long period of unhappiness. Her dedication to a number of good causes, notably the Save The Children Fund won her the respect and admiration of the public and gradually the transformation from the former royal spoilsport, who told the Press to "Naff off", into the royal workhorse was completed.

To single her out from her sisters-in-law, the Queen wanted to honour her only daughter with the title Princess Royal. It was some time before Anne, who had been initially reluctant to accept, agreed - and the title was conferred in 1987. Between then and now the Princess Royal has devoted herself to her work but for the whole of this year her happiness has been evident to those around her and said far more than any Palace announcement.

And not even the ruby ring on her third finger, left hand, could match the sparkle in her eyes when the news was officially given that she and Tim would marry. Not so long ago, the Princess said: "Sailing on a sunny day with a fresh breeze blowing, with maybe somebody you really care for, is the nearest thing to Heaven I will get on this Earth", and it seems no coincidence that since she became close to Tim her love of sailing increased. At first the couple sailed on the Solent but when their plans to marry in Scotland were completed, her 36ft yacht Blue Doublet was moved to a new mooring on Lock Craigie.

Over the past month they have enjoyed several weekends sailing to the Outer Hebrides and to the islands of Jura and Mull. Far from the world's prying eyes, they could just be together, not Princess and commoner but friends who found love.

Princess Anne shone with happiness (above) when she was seen in public with Tim for the first time, in May at the Royal Caledonian Ball.

They've also been spotted together in private (left). He was a step behind her (right) at Ascot in 1987.

Tim’s calm discretion and charm quickly won him a special place in the midst of the royal family. Only a few feet from Anne (top) and already a familiar presence with little Zara (left). Over four years ago (right) he was a protective presence behind Princess Margaret.

Christmas Day 1987 at Sandringham and Tim leaves church with the royal family, right behind the Duchess of Kent (top left). When Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visited the Queen at Windsor Castle, Tim was there too (top right) smartly saluting only a couple of paces behind Her Majesty and Mrs Gorbachev (below centre)

Commander Tim Laurence and Princess Anne’s family trees.

REPORT: JUDY WADE

MAIN PHOTOS: NICHOLAS READ/REX FEATURES

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Zara Phillips hugging and kissing Princess Anne at the Gatcombe Horse Trials on 15 August 1998

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Do you have any idea when anne n tim began dating? Like was it just after he began his equerry job, or was it much later, around the time the letters were discovered?

Hi!

Personally, I think it was a lot earlier than lettersgate lol

It’s been said they met for the first time when he was a junior navigating officer on the Royal Yacht Britannia in the early 80s but nobody really knows for sure. We do know that Tim was appointed an equerry to Liz in April 1986 and that’s when it gets interesting.

Apparently it was love at first sight for him. At this point, Anne’s marriage existed only in name really, and Mark was off shagging anything that stood still long enough, so she was pretty unhappy. She was only going home to Gatcombe at weekends, and spent most of her time in London to work from her office in BP. As an equerry, Tim was around the family all the time, and that’s how they met and became close.

He was a friend to her at first, someone she could tell her problems to and trust not to go blabbing to some tabloid, and naturally they became closer. From what I’ve read, they would spend hours on the telephone, they enjoyed picnics and walks in the grounds of Balmoral, he would take her sailing when they both had free time, and not just by themselves. This is from News Year Day 1987

and he’s giving Zara a piggyback on the beach. The kids would go sailing with them too, and she took them to visit him at his house in Winchester a few times, including once when he was sick with shingles! She also appointed him as a personal advisor to her charities trust in that time too. I can only assume there were a lot more letters than the four that were stolen, and those were just from him to her. They were never published as they were stolen property, and we’ll probably never know what was contained in then (sob) but we know they were described as romantic, passionate and intimate, he called her ‘darling’ several times in them and signed them ‘with love, from Tim’, AND she kept them tied in a pink ribbon in her briefcase.

So in the three years from April 86 to when the letters were leaked in 89, they became friends very quickly, and I think their friendship grew into something more quite quickly aswell ☺️ And once again, I have to include this quote because ITS SO LOVELY AND I SHIP THEM SO HARD

“Tim never stopped thinking about Princess Anne from soon after their first meeting…. Anne has treated him as her closest confidant for some considerable time. Obviously, Tim and the princess were physically attracted to each other, but their friendship goes deeper than that. Tim has filled a loneliness in her life and given her a shoulder to cry on when she needed someone to tell her troubles to. He understands her tantrums and the bad publicity she attracts. But most of all, he cares for her in the way her husband does not.”

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A message from Catherine, The Princess of Wales.

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The day Princess Anne was almost kidnapped on The Mall — 50 years on

On this day 50 years ago, 23-year-old Princess Anne found herself fighting off a gunman as her bodyguard and driver lay wounded beside her. Emma Loffhagen takes a deep dive into the disturbing day one of the most senior royals was almost kidnapped.

By Emma Loffhagen

20 March 2024

“Your daughter has been kidnapped. The following are conditions to be fulfilled for release.”

In March 1974, Ian Ball used a rented typewriter to haphazardly type a letter intended for the then-head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.

Ball, 26, a funeral home worker, demanded £3 million — to be paid in £5 notes — in exchange for the return of the Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne.

After becoming fixated with the 23-year-old princess, he spent two years hatching an elaborate plan to kidnap her.

Today, March 20, marks the 50th anniversary of Ball’s kidnap attempt — one of the most bizarre and disturbing episodes in British royal history.

A “loner,” Ball had been inspired to hatch his elaborate kidnap plot by the novel Day of the Jackal.

He wanted to follow in the footsteps of the book’s hero, the contracted assassin the Jackal.

“He was a very strange man,” Ball’s neighbour later said. “The only time he ever went out was when he went down to the launderette or went out for some food.”

It was thought that he had developed a “fixation” on the royal, whipped up by the widespread and lavish coverage of her wedding to Captain Mark Phillips the previous year.

As part of his plan, Ball had moved from his run-down flat in Bayswater to a lush rented house in Fleet, Hampshire.

It was only a few miles from Sandhurst, where Anne lived with her then-husband Phillips.

After a quick phone call to the Buckingham Palace press office, Ball knew which engagements and events Anne attended each week.

He rented a car under the alias John Williams, stocking the boot with Valium tranquilisers and two pairs of handcuffs.

On the evening of 20 March 1974, Anne was travelling back to Buckingham Palace in an Austin Princess limousine.

She had attended a screening of Riding Towards Freedom, a documentary by the charity Riding for the Disabled.

Captain Phillips, her bodyguard James Beaton, and her lady-in-waiting Rowena Jane Brassey, were also in the car driven by royal chauffeur Alexander Callender.

At around 8pm, as the group drove up The Mall, a white Ford Escort swerved in front of the limousine, forcing Callender to stop.

Then a 31-year-old inspector, Beaton, who had been Anne’s bodyguard for a year, got out to investigate.

“I thought it was somebody who wanted to be a pain in the neck,” he later said. “There was no hint of what was to happen.”

Suddenly, a bearded man with light red hair jumped out of the vehicle and pulled out two handguns, smashing the passenger window with the butt of one.

Beaton had not even had the chance to pull out his weapon when he was shot in the shoulder.

He then attempted to fire back at Ball — but missed. Upon a second attempt, his gun — a Walther PPK — jammed.

Ball turned to the passenger door behind the driver’s seat and started shaking it. Anne was sat on the other side. “Open, or I’ll shoot!” he shouted.

As the princess and Captain Phillips desperately tried to hold the door closed, Anne’s lady-in-waiting crawled out of the door on the passenger side.

Beaton got back in the car, placing himself between the couple and their assailant.

Ball shot into the car, and Beaton’s hand deflected the bullet.

He shot the bodyguard a third time, hitting Beaton in the abdomen and causing him to fall from the vehicle.

“I felt tired and very drunk, although I hadn’t been drinking,” Beaton later told police. “I just wanted to lie down.”

Callender stepped out to confront the gunman, but Ball shot him in the chest and he fell back into the car.

Pulling the door open, Ball grabbed Anne’s forearm as her husband held on to her waist.

“Please, come out,” Ball reportedly told the princess. “You’ve got to come.”

As the pair struggled over Anne, her dress ripped, splitting down the back, which she later recalled prompted her to “lose her rag.”

But, rather than panic, she had what she described as a “very irritating conversation” with her potential kidnapper.

Unbelievably calm despite the commotion, Anne famously replied: “Not bloody likely!”

In an interview with the late television presenter Michael Parkinson, she recalled:

“He [the gunman] opened the door and we had a discussion about where — or where not — we were going to go.

“I said I didn’t think I wanted to go. I was scrupulously polite because I thought it would be silly to be too rude at that stage.”

A nearby tabloid journalist, Brian McConnell, arrived on the scene.

Recognising the limo’s insignia, he realised the commotion must have involved a royal family member.

“Don’t be silly, old boy,” he told Ball. “Put the gun down.”

Ball responded by shooting him too and McConnell collapsed bleeding onto the road.

A man named Ronnie Russell drove past at this point.

He was on his way home to Strood, Kent, from working as an area manager for a cleaning company in London.

In a stroke of incredible luck, Russell happened to be a former boxer. He had cut his cloth at the Repton Club in east London, an infamous venue sponsored by the notorious Kray twins.

Jumping out of the car, Russell punched Ball twice in the head before leading Anne and her lady-in-waiting away from the attacker.

He later explained that he “did not like bullies,” which prompted his decision to intervene.

Despite being injured, Ball still shot the first police officer to arrive on the scene, Constable Michael Hills, 22, before running off.

Detective Constable Peter Edmonds, who answered Constable Hills’ radio request for backup, chased Ball down The Mall and through St James’s Park before tackling him on the ground.

At Ball’s Old Bailey trial in May 1974, more details came to light about the plot.

Ball kept his head lowered for most of the proceedings, only uttering the word “guilty” to confirm the charges of attempted murder and kidnapping.

In his pocket, detectives had discovered the kidnap note addressed to the Queen, which demanded the £3 million ransom (the equivalent of £26 million today), a free pardon, and a plane to fly him to Switzerland.

He had planned to take the princess to a central London property he had rented under an alias.

In a police interview, Ball also said he believed Anne would be an easy target after ascertaining her whereabouts by phoning the Buckingham Palace press office.

“I had thought about it for years,” he said. “She would have been the easiest. I have seen her riding with her husband.”

Ball also showed no remorse for having shot three men on the night of the attempted kidnap.

“They were getting in my way so I had to shoot them,” he said. “Well, the police, that's their job. They expect to be shot. I took a chance of getting shot so why shouldn't they?”

He added: “I suppose I’ll be locked up for the rest of my life. I am only sorry I frightened Princess Anne. There is one good thing coming out of this: you will have to improve on her protection.”

Ball was diagnosed with schizophrenia following the trial and sentenced to a mental health facility under the Mental Health Act, “without limit or time."

He remains in the Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire to this day.

The facility has been home to a series of notorious criminals, including serial killer Peter Sutcliffe and London gangster Ronnie Kray.

Immediately after the attack, the royals ceased having only one protection officer.

When Anne visited Beaton in hospital, “she turned up with two policemen,” her bodyguard said. “From then on, that’s what it was.”

“I had nothing…There was no back-up vehicle,” Beaton told The Times separately.

“The training was non-existent; but then again, [we thought] nothing was going to happen. They are highly specialised now, highly trained.”

Beaton continued to work for Anne for another five years — before the Queen employed him.

After Beaton’s weapon jammed, the type of guns used by bodyguards were also changed: “The Walthers were got rid of overnight.”

Beaton was honoured for his bravery, receiving the George Cross — the UK’s highest civilian honour for gallantry.

Russell also received the honour. In a 2006 interview, Russell recalled what Queen Elizabeth said as she presented his George Medal:

“The medal is from the Queen of England, the thank you is from Anne’s mother.”

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Princess Anne being a cutie as she hosts a reception on behalf of King Charles III for Korean war veterans, on 19 March 2024.

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Princess Anne attending the Oxford Farming Conference, on 04 January 2024.

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Princess Anne on “Wogan” in 1985.