Not only is the all too often overlooked Princess Anne consistently the hardest working member of the royal family—in 2022 alone, she undertook a staggering 214 engagements—but, reports The Daily Express, she may be the key to unlocking a reconciliation at last between warring brothers Prince William and Prince Harry.
Sussex biographer Omid Scobie says that, while Harry has a “pattern” of regular communication with his father, King Charles, there has been “minimal contact” with William since the late Queen’s funeral last September. (A source speaking to Us Weekly said of William “He’s got no plans to speak to Harry. He’s come to terms with the fact [that] he’s lost his little brother, quite possibly for life.”)
William and Harry were not seen interacting at the King’s Coronation earlier this month, but Harry was seen interacting—seemingly joyfully at times—with other members of the royal family, including his aunt, Anne, who The Daily Express writes “could perhaps help plaster the brothers’ wounded relationship.”
“Although much was made of Princess Anne’s military hat supposedly blocking the prince’s view as she sat in front of him during the Coronation, the pair appeared to share a friendly exchange before the ceremony began,” the outlet reports. “Ahead of the main event at Westminster Abbey, Princess Anne was seen chatting with her nephew, with Harry grinning at her before she took her seat.”
According to lipreaders, Anne was supposedly talking to Harry about the seating arrangement, to which Harry replied “I don’t mind. Sit at the front!”
The pair have a lot in common—aside from both being “spares” (with their older brother the heir to the throne), “The Princess Royal has always had a soft spot for Harry, and they both have a wicked sense of humor,” a source speaking to The Mail on Sunday says. “People talk about Prince Andrew being the spare, but Anne was the second born, too, and particularly since Diana died has always felt a duty to support her nephew.” (After Charles, Anne was the next born, but was leapfrogged by younger brothers Andrew and Prince Edward in the line of succession, as the rules hadn’t yet changed at that time, as they now have for Princess Charlotte.)
One friend told The Times in the wake of Harry’s memoir, Spare, being published that “he really ought to talk to Princess Anne. She often talked about how, as children, she was treated so differently to Charles. She was second to him and kicked further down the line of succession as a woman, but she forged her own path. In her twenties, she was bolshy and upset about a lot of things, but she came through that. He should talk to her about her experiences. She is shrewd. She could tell him a lot about what she went through.”
Today, despite recent comments that have generated buzz, Anne and her older brother Charles seem to be on good terms. We can only hope she can be the one to inspire Harry and his older brother William to do the same.
