On Aug. 8, Buckingham Palace released a new portrait of King Charles’ sister in celebration of her upcoming birthday. Princess Anne turns 75 on Aug. 15, and the early release of the image officially kicks off the festivities.
The photo shows the Princess Royal with her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, and was taken by Chris Jackson. Jackson is Getty Images’ royal photographer and recently took Queen Camilla’s portrait for her 78th birthday.
The portrait of Princess Anne and Sir Tim, 70, was captured before the State Banquet at Windsor Castle in July. The diplomatic dinner was held in honor of French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the U.K., which ran from July 8 to July 10 and in a twist, was hosted at the castle instead of Buckingham Palace.
Princess Anne unveiled a rare hairstyle shake-up at the glamorous banquet, trading her signature bouffant of five decades for an elegant chignon.
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She also wore the Festoon Tiara, topping her look with a signature sparkler from her royal rotation. The Princess Royal received the tiara as a gift from the Worldwide Shipping Group after she christened one of their ships in 1973, the year she turned 23.
Princess Anne is the second child and only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and has followed in her parents’ footsteps with an indefatigable devotion to royal duty.
In 2024, the Princess Royal topped the list as the British royal family’ “hardest-working” member by count of official engagements recorded in The Court Circular for the fourth year running.
Anne sustained that honor even though she sustained a concussion and minor injuries that June in a horse-related “incident” on the property of her home, Gatcombe Park, which sidelined her from royal work for a few weeks.
Princess Anne later said that she had no memory of what happened and that the accident reminded her how every day is a gift.
“It just reminds you, shows you — you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover… You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus really,” she told the Press Association during a solo tour of South Africa in January, the BBC reported.
While King Charles’ sister said in the same conversation that she has no plans to retire from royal life (“I don’t think there’s a retirement program on this particular life,” she said), she does have some happy news in the family to look forward to!
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On Aug. 1, Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips announced his engagement to Harriet Sperling after a year of dating.
Peter, 47, a sports management executive, was first linked to the pediatric nurse in May 2024 and the couple have stepped out in sync ever since.
The royal family will expand when Peter marries Harriet (date TBD!) and the Princess Royal was spotted warmly chatting with her future daughter-in-law at Royal Ascot on June 17.
