Peter Phillips Reveals Princess Anne's Rules on the Buckingham Palace Balcony
Peter Phillips has revealed that his mother, Princess Anne, laid down two clear rules whenever he and his sister Zara Tindall stepped onto the Buckingham Palace balcony.
Reminders to Behave
Speaking to an ITV film marking the Princess Royal’s 70th birthday in 2020, Phillips said he was regularly reminded to behave. The brief instructions were simple: don’t pick your nose and don’t yawn, he recalled, after receiving a quick admonition from his mother.
Princess Anne's Reputed Strictness
Anne earned a reputation as the strict presence on the balcony. One often-cited moment came in 1987 when she tried to settle a lively four-year-old Prince William during an RAF flypast.
Princess Anne's Current Reputation
Now 74 and approaching her 75th birthday, the Princess Royal is widely regarded as one of the hardest-working and most down-to-earth members of the royal family.
Self-Description and Values
In a Vanity Fair interview in 2020 she described herself as “the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back” who insists on upholding basic standards. She warned ...