Princess Anne has spoken about the suspected horse accident she was involved in last year, which left her staying in hospital for five nights with a concussion and minor head injuries.
The Princess Royal made a chilling, 10-word remark about the incident and revealed how “[she was] sharply reminded that every day is a bonus”.
King Charles’s sister was rushed to Southmead Hospital in Bristol back in June after she was seemingly struck by a horse while walking on her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire.
Anne said she was on the way to see chickens on her estate when the accident happened but has no memory of what followed.
The princess, who recently embarked on a solo two-day tour to South Africa due to her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, suffering an injury, told the Press Association about whether she remembers anything about the accident: “No, nothing.”
She said she does not remember walking into a field and added: “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.”
Shortly before her transfer to the hospital, emergency services and an air ambulance rushed on-site to administer medical care.
Following her fie-night hospitalisation, the princess spent three weeks recuperating at home before returning to public duties.
Asked about any lasting ill effects, she lightened the mood and joked: “Apparently not, at least I don’t think so. As far as I know nobody else thinks so – they haven’t been honest enough to tell me yet. So far so good.
“You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus really.”
Regarding any future retirement, she said: “It really isn’t written in, no. It isn’t really an option, no, I don’t think so.
“You’re jolly lucky… if you can continue to be more or less compos mentis and last summer I was very close to not being. Take each day as it comes, they say.”