Princess Anne looks regal in new photo released for her 75th birthday,
A new photograph of The Princess Royal has been released by Buckingham Palace to mark her 75th birthday today.
Princess Anne looked elegant as ever in a blue and white dress with a high collar while leaning gently on a window frame.
The regal image was taken last month at Gatcombe Park, Anne’s private residence, by John Swannell.
The celebrated royal photographer also took the official portraits of Anne for her 60th and 70th birthday, as well as many other shots of the royals including Diana, Princess of Wales, and the late Queen’s official Diamond Jubilee portrait in 2012.
Notoriously private, Anne and her husband Sir Tim Laurence are said to be sailing their 42ft yacht Ballochbuie (named after ancient woodland on the Balmoral estate) around the Western Isles of Scotland to celebrate the day.
Indeed, Anne is said to hold a ‘no-frills’ approach to her birthdays which means she only celebrates major milestones.
‘Anne’s policy is: “I will do things for my birthdays that have a zero, but I won’t do things for my birthdays that have a five,”‘ expert Roya Nikkhah revealed on the Royals with Roya and Kate podcast.
She added Anne has reportedly cancelled meetings in the run to the big day to avoid discussions about how she might mark her 75th.
Despite her best efforts to squash any fuss about her big day, Anne hosted more than a hundred charities at Buckingham Palace last month to commemorate the milestone.
It was said to be her only request for her big day, turning the royal residence into the ‘charities forum’.
‘This personifies what Her Royal Highness cares about,’ a palace source said. ‘She didn’t want to do anything for her birthday but bring her charities together to hear more about their work and how she can help them.’
The princess, wearing a sand coloured skirt suit, arrived at the event after Colonel John Boyd, her Private Secretary, welcomed guests to the Palace’s ballroom, telling them: ‘There has been a significant amount of interest in HRH’s 75th birthday celebrations.
‘As you are aware the princess has given decades of time and support to more than 400 charities and patronages.
‘It probably won’t come as a surprise, given HRH’s commitment to you all, that the way the Princess wants to celebrate this milestone is to replicate what she’s done on previous significant birthdays and hold this charities forum again to once again understand how she can help you, at a time when the third sector is facing unprecedented challenges and transformations.’
In her own speech to more than 216 guests from 111 different organisations, Anne was typically self-effacing, telling them hilariously: ‘I’m not here because this was my choice.
‘You very kindly asked me to become patron of your organisations, so it’s an honour for me to have all of you here.’
She also spoke about ‘the pleasure I get from visiting and finding out a bit more about what you do.’
Anne is regularly named the Royal Family’s hardest-working royal, even in her 70s.
Last year she conducted 474 public engagements. But, as the princess refuses to allow journalists to accompany her on official engagements – unless she can be persuaded there is a good reason – her work attracts little publicity.
‘She’s never felt the need to court public opinion and has just got on with the job with the minimum of fuss,’ a source told Daily Mail’s Rebecca English last week.
But her 75th birthday celebrations were well attended, which heard from three charity leaders: Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund spoke about public trust in charities; David Holdsworth, CEO of the Charity Commission spoke about the financial challenges faced by charities; Zoe Amar, founder and director of Zoe Amar Digital spoke about the opportunities and challenges raised by technology.
Their presentations were followed by a Q&A session led by Professor Lynne Berry, Chair, Human Tissue Authority, who addressed the Princess by saying: ‘Your leadership… and encouragement to a group of charities that range in size, in location, in purpose, is quite extraordinary.’
Among the charities invited were two of her most longstanding patronages, Save the Children, which she became patron of in 1970, and Riding for the Disabled, of which she became patron in 1971.
Some of her newest charities were also represented, including Friends of the Elderly and Royal Star and Garter Homes – both formerly patronages of Queen Elizabeth II – and the Naval Children’s Charity, formerly a patronage of the Duke of York.
In her address, the Princess also told guests: ‘I would just like to make the point that we’re very fortunate that His Majesty has allowed us to use Buckingham Palace for this event… And I need to say that!’
She concluded by saying: ‘The responsibility and respect that you give to your own organisations, the people who work for you and your own beneficiaries, is perhaps the key to what makes you so important. Respect and responsibility. Thank you very much for doing what you do.’
Anne cancelled her last major birthday celebration in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Five years ago, the Daily Mail reported Anne had been due to celebrate her 70th with a soiree hosted by her mother Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.
The Princess Royal instead marked the occasion with a sailing trip around the west coast of Scotland with her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.
The late Queen also hosted a secret, socially distanced lunch with her daughter at Frogmore House, an empty private royal residence on her Berkshire estate, to mark the occasion.
No other members of the Royal Family were present, and only minimal staff – who were part of the Queen’s castle ‘bubble’ at the time – attended.
Anne’s next milestone birthday will be her 80th in 2030 and, according to Roya, Anne plans to start ‘winding down’ her royal duties after that.
The royal insider said: ‘I was told that she’s told her team: “I’m going to start winding down a little bit at 80, in five years’ time, and then I want to step back completely at 90.”‘
