Tomorrow is Princess Anne‘s 75th birthday. But due to an unusual ‘rule’ the Princess Royal adheres, to the Windsors might not need to bring out the cake and balloons to mark the occasion.
Indeed, the notoriously private Anne is known for her rather unconventional approach to royal life, having decided when her children were born they would not receive titles.
That attitude also extends into other aspects of Anne’s life.
On the Royals with Roya and Kate podcast, expert Roya Nikkhah revealed Anne follows a strict policy when it comes to birthday celebrations.
Roya claims that the Princess Royal has 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,”‘ Roya said.
She added Anne has reportedly cancelled meetings in the run to the big day to avoid discussions about how she might mark her 75th.
Anne cancelled her last major birthday celebration in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Princess Anne in July 2025. The Princess Royal turns 75 tomorrow but is unlikely to mark the occasion with a big party
Anne at Newmarket Racecourse in 2021. Speaking on the Royals with Roya and Kate podcast, royals expert Roya Nikkhah revealed that Anne follows a strict policy when it comes to birthday celebrations
Anne and her father Prince Philip at the 2012 Olympics. Anne, like Philip, is reportedly planning to wind down her royal duties as she approaches her 80th and then 90th birthday
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.”‘
She speculated that Anne might be following the same timescale as her late father, Prince Philip.
Roya said: ‘I thought the timeline, as you said, was interesting – that she’s looking at her father, the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, who stepped back from public life completely at 96.’
Anne at the coronation of her brother in May 2023. Anne shows no sign of slowing down just yet and she holds the title of the hardest working royal, having taken on 474 engagements last year
Anne with Queen Elizabeth II in June 2019. To mark her 70th birthday in 2020, Anne enjoyed a socially distanced lunch with her mother
Indeed, Anne shows no sign of slowing down just yet and she holds the title of the hardest working royal, having taken on 474 engagements last year and a whopping 20,000 throughout her adult life.
On top of this, Anne is the patron of over 300 charities, organisations and military regiments.
This includes The Princess Royal’s Trust for Carers – now known as the Carers Trust – and Save The Children which was the first major charity with which she became closely associated when Anne was just 20 years old.
During her long tenure as a working royal, Anne has become something of a trailblazer.
At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, she became the first member of the family to take part in the tournament when she competed in the equestrian event.
Anne also made the unconventional decision on behalf of her son and daughter that they would forgo much of the trappings of royal life and not receive titles.
Anne’s controversial decision happened immediately after the birth of her son Peter, in 1977, when she decided her son would not be given a title.
King Charles III and Princess Anne at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II
A young Princess Anne and her father
Writing in his biography of Princess Anne, royal insider Brian Hoey said Anne did so because she believed ‘in this day and age, a title would be more of a hindrance than an advantage as her children try to make their way in the world’.
Although Queen Elizabeth II reluctantly agreed to Anne’s request, Hoey wrote that the late Queen had been ‘anxious’ to give her first-born grandson a title.
And – according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward – Elizabeth was left disappointed by her decision, but was nevertheless persuaded to respect her daughter’s decision.
Despite not being bestowed the title of prince, Peter still grew up with many of the airs and graces that define the royals.
After his birth, Anne was quick to resume her own duties as a working member of the royals which meant that Peter was brought up by a nanny.
Peter and later his sister also went to Gordonstoun, the same public school his grandfather Philip and his three uncles all attended.
Hoey perfectly summarised Peter’s upbringing as ‘not exactly a run-of-the-mill commoner’.
Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Anne following the birth of Peter Phillips, who Anne decided would not be given a title
Princess Anne with her husband Sir Tim Laurence
When Anne’s daughter was born in 1981, she decided not to give her a royal title and broke convention in a different way when she named her Zara, an unusual for a member of the Royal Family.
And the Princess Royal was very much involved with bringing up her daughter with a young Zara ‘never very far from Anne’s side’.
Whether Anne succeeded in giving Zara and Peter a ‘normal’ life is up for debate, but they certainly got the best of both worlds in many respects.
As while their cousins continue their roles as working members of the family, Anne’s children have had successful careers elsewhere.
From 2000, Peter worked in Formula One first for Jaguar as a corporate hospitality manager and then for Williams racing team as a sponsorship accounts manager.
He left F1 in 2006 for a job at the Royal Bank of Scotland and since leaving the bank in 2012 he has held numerous other jobs in the private sector.
Zara had a successful equestrian career which saw her compete in multiple horse riding competitions.
Her career high point was representing Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics where she won a silver medal in the equestrian team eventing.
This was the first time Britain had won a medal in the event since 1972 when Zara’s father – Captain Mark Phillips – won a gold.
