Princess Anne made a rare admission this week during a royal engagement in Portsmouth. On Wednesday, The Princess Royal, 75, visited the Naval Children’s Charity (NCC) in her first visit as patron – a position she took on in March.
During the visit, Anne talked to naval families about various matters, including boarding schools. The princess also learnt more about the charity, which supports young people from naval families up to the age of 25 through wellbeing support, grants in times of crisis, and development opportunities.
While Anne tends to keep her royal duties separate from her private life, the royal did make a rare admission about her granddaughters during yesterday’s engagement.
Before departing from the event, the King’s sister was presented with flowers and some gifts, including aprons—one of which was child-sized.
This led to Anne’s sweet admission about her four granddaughters: Savannah, 14, Isla, 13, Mia, 11, and Lena, 7.
On seeing the child-sized gift, the Princess Royal said: “Yes, I don’t think that’s going to fit me, it might fit my granddaughters, they all cook actually”
While the royal rarely talks about her grandchildren, it is believed she shared very close bonds with them all, especially as they live on her Gatcombe Park estate.
In an ITV documentary aired in 2020, titled ‘Anne: The Princess Royal at 70’, Anne’s son Peter Phillips, 47, spoke about what his mum is like as a grandmother, especially the fact she enjoys helping them learn how to ride horses – a lifelong passion of her own.
He said: “She loves seeing them ride, she loves having them round for Sunday lunches and taking them for walks. Doing all the things that we would do as kids.”
Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall, 44, then joked that she enjoys her mother looking after her children on Sundays.
She said: “We quite like leaving them on Sundays. We’ll say, ‘We’ll pick them up later, bye.'”
