Mourning her mother. Princess Anne honored Queen Elizabeth II with a touching gesture in the aftermath of her September 2022 death.
Anne, the only daughter of the late queen and the late Prince Philip, curtsied as her mother’s coffin passed by the royals’ Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland just days after Her Majesty’s passing at her Balmoral estate.
On September 12, 2022, the princess walked alongside her brothers, King Charles III, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, as they followed behind the coffin as it arrived at Edinburgh’s St. Giles’ Cathedral from Balmoral.
Anne, the second eldest child of Elizabeth and Philip, was only 3 years old when her mother assumed the throne in 1953 and became queen of England, the position she held for a historic 70 years. While Anne earned the title of Princess upon her mother’s ascension, Elizabeth declared her Princess Royal 30 years later, a distinction awarded at the monarch’s discretion to the eldest daughter of the royal family.
While Anne and her siblings may have had an unconventional upbringing as royals, the family of six enjoyed numerous vacations together throughout the years, a welcome respite from their busy lives and the glow of the spotlight.
As Anne recalled in the BBC’s September 2022 program, A Tribute To Her Majesty The Queen, her parents were able to spend more time with their children while they were on holiday.
“The holiday times were pretty well kept, actually, from our perspective,” she revealed, noting that Elizabeth and Philip were “nearly always around.”
The late queen loved her getaways, Anne added, “partly because it included all the things that she enjoyed, includ[ing] the countryside, the dogs, the horses and just being out and about and being able to get away a bit from that public gaze.”
The Princess Royal, like her siblings, greatly admired the late sovereign — for her service to her country, as a mother and when looking at her 73-year marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh, who passed away in April 2021 at the age of 99.
In a 2017 interview with ITV, Anne — who has been married twice: first to ex-husband Mark Phillips from 1973 to 1992, then to her husband, Timothy Laurence, since the year she and Phillips finalized their divorce — noted that for her parents, a “sense of partnership was really important.”
“It was a very much complimented each other’s strengths and skills and that continued to be true” throughout their seven decades of marriage.
Keep scrolling to see Anne and Elizabeth’s relationship throughout the years.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip welcomed their only daughter at their Clarence House estate in London. Shutterstock
In a September 2022 BBC tribute to the queen, Anne recalled that the family went on many much-needed holidays throughout her childhood, remarking that her parents were “nearly always around” during their vacations. The queen loved the royal getaways “partly because it included all the things that she enjoyed, includ[ing] the countryside, the dogs, the horses and just being out and about and being able to get away a bit from that public gaze,” the Princess Royal remembered. AP/Shutterstock
In the late ‘80s, Elizabeth granted her daughter — who was then known by her princess title — an even higher moniker: Princess Royal. Nils Jorgensen/Shutterstock
Though Her Majesty faced backlash for choosing to stay in Scotland with Prince William and Prince Harry after their mother Princess Diana’s death in August 1997 — as opposed to commanding that the family head back to London to grieve with the public — Anne commended the queen’s decision in a 2017 interview with ITV. “I don't think either of those two would've been able to cope had they been anywhere else,” Anne said of her nephews, adding that staying with family at the time “was the only good thing that happened” since they “had that structure” and “people around them who could understand, give them the time.” She continued: “I think my mother did exactly the right thing. I think it's absolutely extraordinary that any right-minded parent should believe ... [there] would have been an alternative to bring those children down here to London in all that hoo-ha. I just don't know how you can think that would've been a better thing to do.” Tim Rooke/Shutterstock
One day following her mother’s death at Balmoral in Scotland, Anne, Andrew, Edward and more royal family members greeted mourners in Edinburgh. Tim Rooke/Shutterstock
In the BBC’s A Tribute To Her Majesty The Queen, Anne commented on her parents’ 73-year marriage, sharing that Elizabeth and Philip’s “partnership” was important to them. “It was a very much complimented each other’s strengths and skills and that continued to be true” throughout their historic romance, the princess said. A Davidson/Shutterstock
In a moving gesture of respect to her late mother, Anne curtsied at Queen Elizabeth’s coffin as it passed by Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Aaron Chown/AP/Shutterstock
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