8 times Princess Anne proved she's the most interesting British royal
On March 21, 1974, Anne was returning from a charity event. While driving down The Mall toward Buckingham Palace, Anne's chauffeur stopped the car because another vehicle was blocking the road. A man named Ian Ball got out of that vehicle and shot the chauffeur. He demanded Anne get out of her car in an attempt to kidnap her.
She refused and famously said, "Not bloody likely." Instead, she stayed in the car and kept Ball talking.
"We had a sort of discussion about where or where not we were going to go," Anne told talk show host Michael Parkinson in 1980. "I was scrupulously polite because I thought it was silly to be too rude at that stage."
Ultimately, Ball shot four men during the encounter, but Anne escaped unscathed.
Ball was arrested and charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. He was later sentenced to 41 years at a high-security psychiatric hospital.
In 1976, Anne participated in the Montreal Olympic Games as an equestrian. At the games, she chose to ride the Queen's horse, Goodwill. Even though she didn't win a medal, it marked the first time a British royal took part in the Olympic games.
A few decades later, her daughter, Zara Phillips, competed in the 2012 Olympic Games, and Anne presented her with her silver medal.
Anne has two children, a daughter named Zara and a son named Peter. When they were born, the Queen offered them titles, but Anne turned both down.
"I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles," she told Vanity Fair in 2020. "So I think that was probably the right thing to do."
In 2019, Anne attended over 500 royal engagements, according to Vanity Fair.
"I make [assistants] lives more difficult in terms of the logistics, I'm afraid, but if I'm going to be in London, I don't want to be hanging about," she told Vanity Fair in 2020. "A lot of stuff goes on here, so there's a question of filling in the time. I'm fortunate that the program that I make up is a direct result of being asked to do these things. It would be a pity if you didn't try and do them."
In 1972, police gave Princess Anne a warning for going over the speed limit, and she was fined for a similar incident in 1977. In 1990, she was fined and also banned from driving for a month after she was caught speeding again and told authorities she was "late for an engagement."
She ran into trouble once more in 2001 when she was fined over $500 for driving 93 mph in a 70 mph zone. Anne said she thought the police chasing her were just her police escort to an event.
On April 1, 2002, Anne was in Windsor Great Park with her husband and their dog, a bull terrier. The dog got loose and bit two children, aged 7 and 12. Anne apologized and took the children to hospital, according to the prosecutor, but charges were brought against the royal under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Anne pleaded guilty and paid a $785 fine.
"We do not think justice has been done," the family of the two children said in a statement, the Washington Post reported at the time. "The dog is still free and is a danger to society."
"Princess Anne is a true style icon and was all about sustainable fashion before the rest of us really knew what that meant," British Vogue editor Edward Enninful told Vanity Fair in 2020. "She is timeless in her style, and she wears a tailored suit better than anyone else I can think of."
Actress Erin Doherty plays Princess Anne in Netflix's "The Crown," which chronicles the lives of the royal family through the years. In an interview, Doherty said it takes the hair and makeup team around two hours to get her hair to look like Anne's.
In a 2020 documentary about the princess, Anne said that didn't make much sense to her.
"Actually I read an article the other day about the, I don't watch Netflix and 'The Crown,' but the actress was talking about how long it took them to do their hair like I did," she said in the documentary. "And I'm thinking, 'How could you possibly take that long?' I mean, it takes me 10 or 15 minutes."