Following the birth of Prince William, royal fans across the country rushed to offer their best wishes – but Princess Anne responded in her famed caustic manner.
King Charles, then Prince Charles, and his first wife Princess Diana welcomed William on the evening of June 24, 1982. Crowds gathered excitedly outside Buckingham Palace to celebrate and, the following morning, Charles and Diana introduced their little prince to the world on the steps of the Lindo Wing at London’s St Mary’s Hospital.
At the time, proud new dad Charles, then 33, gave the following intimate statement: “I am so thankful I was beside Diana’s bedside the whole time because I felt as though I’d shared deeply in the process of birth and as a result was rewarded by seeing a small creature who belonged to us even though he seemed to belong to everyone else as well.”
Indeed, the public fascination with the then-20-year-old Diana was such that her first son’s birth was met with scenes of jubilation – with many feeling a personal connection with the shy young princess. However, Princess Anne – who reportedly had a somewhat complicated relationship with her glamorous sister-in-law – reacted in a slightly more frosty manner…
Anne reportedly had ‘no time for Diana’ (
Image:
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
After having travelled back from a New Mexico visit shortly before William’s birth, no-nonsense Anne was asked by reporters about the arrival of her baby nephew. Anne simply gave a cool six-word response: “I didn’t know she [Diana] had one.” When asked whether she thought too much fuss, The Princess Royal bluntly stated: “Yes.”
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The Daily Express reports that, at the time, a Palace insider explained that Anne, known for her hardworking approach, had been feeling additional pressures – with her Royal engagements piling up while her brother and sister-in-law concentrated on new parenthood. This insider revealed: “Anne works very hard and sees her sister-in-law picking up the glory. She’s sick to her back teeth with it all.”
The reportedly difficult relationship between the two princesses was explored in season four of the hit Netflix series, The Crown, where Anne, played by Erin Doherty, can be seen lamenting that Diana’s charity work was given far more press attention than her own. In a heart-to-heart with her mother Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Coleman), the character sighs: “All she [Diana] has to do is put on a frock and she’s all over all the front pages and everyone falling over in shock at how wonderful she is.”
The two Royal women were indeed very different in temperament and interests, and reports would suggest a personality clash behind palace walls. In the eye-opening Channel 5 documentary Paxman on the Queen’s Children, royal author Richard Kay shed some light on why the sisters-in-law didn’t always see eye-to-eye.
William has ‘terrifying’ memories of his Aunt Anne, whose competitive nature would emerge during childhood holidays in Scotland (
Image:
PA)
He explained: “Princess Anne, she had no time for Diana. She didn’t like the way she went about her duty and the way she used the cameras and the media to promote herself, in her eyes. Anne had a much more traditional approach to monarchy and royal duty.”
Despite these early tensions, Prince William, now a father of three himself, is understood to enjoy a close relationship with his Aunt Anne – however, he has previously spoken out about her ‘terrifying’ side. During an appearance on Mike Tindall’s The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, the Prince of Wales recalled how, during his childhood, his sporty aunt would race him around Balmoral.
Rather than let her young nephew win, however, Anne’s competitive side would end up getting the better of her. William remembered that Anne was ‘quite quick’ and that the ‘look that [she] had on [her] face was quite terrifying’.
