An Update On The Real Princess Anne For After The Crown Season 3

We’re moving slightly into the future in The Crown Season 3, as the story of Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman) moves into the mid-1960s. Specifically, the year 1964, which means that Elizabeth is now 12 years into her reign — and that makes her one and only daughter, Princess Anne, 14 years old. Yes, the kids we’ve seen run in and out of the scenes for the last two seasons of The Crown are now tweens and teenagers, and if Elizabeth thought ruling over a country was hard, try dealing with kids going through puberty. 

Newcomer Erin Doherty plays Princess Anne as Elizabeth and Prince Philipp’s children are older, which means they’ve got things to say and will factor into the action more and more in the series. So while we’ll get a glimpse of what Anne was like decades ago, where is she nowadays?

Considering her mother is 93 years old (!!), Anne is up there too; she’s currently 69, having been born in 1950. Also, she’s no longer “Princess Anne,” as her title now stands as “Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.” This title is only given to the eldest daughter of the ruling monarch, and as Anne is the oldest and only daughter of Elizabeth and Philipp, it’s hers alone right now. 

She’s been married twice, first to Mark Philipps, thanks to their mutual love of all things horses and equestrian. The two were married in 1973 and divorced in 1991, after having two children. But what’s really exciting here is that Anne was a horse enthusiast herself and actually went to the Olympics in 1976 and competed in Eventing (In the simplest of terms, a horse obstacle course) where she actually rode one of the Queen’s horses. Though she didn’t medal, this was a big deal as she was the first member of the royal family to ever make it to the Olympics. 

Anne later married again, to Timothy Laurence a Navy officer, in 1992. They’re still currently married today and at age 69, Anne is still incredibly busy. According to The Telegraph, by the end of 2018, Anne had actually worked 180 days over the course of the year appearing at different royal events and functions — and yes, this is supposedly 20 days more than her older brother and future king, Prince Charles. That number is slightly down from 2017, though, where Anne appeared at a whopping 455 different engagements (and yes, this number once again beats Prince Charles). 
If that’s not enough, Anne is still very active with the Olympics, having served as Great Britain’s representative to the International Olympic Committee at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. She’s also currently Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, a position she’s held since 2011, and she’s been president of the Save the Children charity since 1970.

And if that’s not enough for her, she’s also got four grandchildren, too!