Everyone laughed when Princess Anne’s feathered hat obscured her nephew Prince Harry’s view at the King’s coronation, but what most missed was the pair’s warm exchange when she arrived and joked about him sitting in the third row.
While the rest of the senior royals barely glanced in Harry’s direction, Anne made a point of stopping to ask him if he was OK with his seating position, to which he laughingly replied, “I don’t mind,” before instructing her to “sit at the front”!
Onlookers might have been surprised by the warm exchange, but palace insiders say the ability not to hold grudges is one of the Princess Royal’s most endearing qualities – and it’s why, ahead of Harry’s flying visit to the UK this week, Charles, 74, has deployed Anne, 72, to play peacemaker between his warring sons Harry, 38, and Prince William, 40.
“Anne has a soft spot for Harry because they share a similar sense of humour – or certainly did – and she can identify with him being the spare, not the heir,” royal expert Phil Dampier tells Woman’s Day.
“After all, Anne has played second fiddle for 70 years to Charles and Prince Andrew, even though she has always been the hardest-working royal.”
The pair shared a warm exchange at the King’s coronation – despite her hat blocking his view!
With Harry due to return to the High Court in London as part of his ongoing case with the Mirror Group over phone-hacking allegations, it’s the perfect opportunity for Anne to have a quiet word with her nephew and tell him exactly what she thinks of all the “feuding nonsense”.
“If King Charles asks her, I’m sure she would act as a go-between in any meaningful family attempts to heal the rift,” says Phil. “Anne also knows better than most that royals are humans with weaknesses and problems like the rest of us. Her own marriage failed, she had an affair with one of her detectives and her son Peter Phillips’ marriage ended in divorce, so she doesn’t tend to lecture or moralise at others.”
Tellingly, Anne is one of the only members of the royal family who wasn’t attacked in Harry’s blistering biography, which cruelly targeted his brother William and sister-in-law Kate, as well as sharing details of his father’s relationship with his stepmother Queen Camilla.
The biggest roadblock will be Wills, says a royal insider. “William is the one who is most upset. He can’t move beyond Harry’s cruel portrayal of him as hot-headed and unsympathetic.”
Phil adds, “Anne won’t be happy about Harry writing Spare and doing his Netflix series – she doesn’t believe in washing dirty linen in public – but she will have forgiven him and tried to understand his motives.
“She is very practical and pragmatic, like her father Prince Philip, and she will try to solve problems, so I can see her as a potential peacemaker. I don’t think she is an admirer of his wife Meghan and she probably feels Harry would still be a royal if it weren’t for her. But she also recognises the terrible scars Harry bears because of what happened to Diana.”
Undoubtedly, one of Anne’s biggest motivations for reuniting the brothers will be to honour her late mother’s legacy.
“If she can help, she will bring the brothers back together,” says Phil. “But it will be behind the scenes, away from the public gaze.”
Anne & Harry’s surprising bond
1986
“The Princess Royal and Harry share a wicked sense of humour,” says a royal insider, adding that she felt huge amounts of empathy for him after the death of his mother in 1997.
2008
A shared love of military service has also brought the pair closer. In 2008, Anne presented the campaign medals to soldiers of the Household Cavalry Regiment, which Harry was part of.
2006
Second-born Anne can also sympathise with Harry’s position in the family, while his close friendship with her daughter Zara Tindall would no doubt endear him further to his aunt.
