As Princess Anne marks her milestone 75th birthday on August 15, royal watchers are reflecting on the substantial role she’s played not just as a working royal, but within her own family—especially the bond she shared with her parents. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s only daughter has long been regarded as one of the most hard-working and no-nonsense members of the Royal Family. But behind her often steely (and superbly witty) exterior is a daughter who shared a particularly close relationship with her father, the late Duke of Edinburgh.
Unlike her older brother King Charles, who was a sensitive and bookish child, the Princess Royal shared Prince Philip’s brisk, outdoorsy spirit. As Majesty magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward wrote in a 2017 piece for the Daily Mail, “Single-minded, sporty and brave, Princess Anne is unafraid of controversy and cares little for the opinion of others. In other words, she is very much her father’s daughter—in a way that Prince Charles can never be his father’s son.”
Eileen Parker, whose husband, Mike Parker, was a friend of Prince Philip’s, told Seward that the late duke “always had more fun with Anne,” adding “Charles is more like The Queen, while Anne is very like Prince Philip.”
While Prince Philip spent time outdoors with all of his children, he’s said to have shared more interests with the Princess Royal than he did with his eldest son, Charles. From an early age, Anne enjoyed pursuits like riding, camping and sailing with her father, and the two bonded over their dry sense of humor and a mutual disdain for fuss.
While royal fans might assume that it was lifelong equestrian Queen Elizabeth who encouraged her daughter to ride, it was actually Prince Philip who was instrumental in jump-starting Anne’s athletic career (no pun intended). Seward wrote that “Philip had no reservations about letting his daughter expose herself to the dangers inherent in equestrian sport,” adding that one observer said, “It was almost as if he treated her as a son.”
“Charles was still at the end of a leading rein when Anne was already jumping,” Seward wrote of the siblings. “She was also galloping before she’d properly learned how to trot.” Seeing how naturally talented she was at riding, Prince Philip saw that Anne received the best training, culminating in her becoming the first member of the Royal Family to compete in the Olympic Games.
Years later, Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, would go on to win silver for eventing in the 2012 Olympics—and her medal was presented by none other than her mom.
Noting that The King “was a poor athlete” as a child, Seward wrote that Prince Philip taught the Princess Royal how to sail “with considerably more success than he’d had with Charles—who was seasick and didn’t respond well either to the hearty disciplines of life on board or being shouted at by his father.”
