Princess Anne’s Horse Incident “Was So Much Worse Than Anyone Let On”

Princess Anne’s injury last summer—which left her hospitalized for five days—was “much worse” than the public knew, a friend of the Princess Royal said in a new profile of her.

Ahead of her milestone 75th birthday on August 15, The Times ran a piece about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s only daughter, including speaking to someone who knows Anne well. “Her accident was so much worse than anyone let on, and it took quite a while for her to feel herself again,” they said.

When the accident happened last June, the Princess Royal was at home at her Gatcombe Park estate when she suffered a concussion that her medical team described as head injuries consistent with a potential impact from a horse’s head or legs. Anne later said that she didn’t “remember a single thing” about the incident, and said (per Hello!), “It just reminds you, shows you—you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover.”

“You’re jolly lucky…if you can continue to be more or less compos mentis, and last summer I was very close to not being,” she added. “Take each day as it comes, they say. You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus, really.”

Just three weeks after her accident, Anne—who has long been known as the hardest working royal in the British royal family—was back at work. She yet again topped the list as the hardest working royal in 2024, clocking 474 engagements. The second place finisher was her older brother, King Charles, who finished the year with 372.

In the same profile from The Times, a close friend revealed when Anne plans to retire—and it isn’t anytime soon. “She has said her plan is to push on [with work] until she is 80, then start winding down a bit, and then copy the [late] Duke of Edinburgh [her father, Prince Philip] and wind down completely at 90,” they said.

“The head of state has to go on, but the princess is in a position where she can wind down and say, ‘I’ve done my bit,’ just like the Duke of Edinburgh did,” the source added. “She would like to do it while she is still in reasonable health and she can enjoy some time at Gatcombe.”

“A driving force is also Tim [her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence], who is very supportive of her,” the insider continued. “One of his main concerns has always been that she doesn’t burn herself out.” 

Anne herself addressed retirement plans—or lack thereof—saying earlier this year that retirement as a royal “isn’t really an option.”

“I don’t think there’s a retirement program on this particular life,” she continued, per the BBC. “It really isn’t written in, no. It isn’t really an option, no. I don’t think so.”

In the piece for The Times, an aide revealed that staff were given strict instructions to not make a big deal about her upcoming 75th birthday. “She told us she would do things for birthdays that had ‘zeroes, but not for the fives,’” the staffer told the outlet.