Prince Philip Enjoyed Princess Anne’s Sporty Nature and Treated Her 'As a Son': 'Charles Can Never...'
At 75, Princess Anne’s reputation as the most steadfast and hardworking member of the Royal Family hardly surprises anyone. She has long been admired for her blunt honesty, tireless devotion to duty, and her ability to shun fuss in favor of simply getting the job done. She is also a well-known athlete and the first royal to compete in the Olympics. And while most people would assume Princess Anne inherited her passion for horses from her mother, Queen Elizabeth. But it was actually Prince Philip who pushed her into the saddle and set the course for her athletic career.
Unlike her older brother Charles, who was more sensitive and bookish, Anne embodied the same brisk, outdoorsy spirit that defined her father. Majesty magazine’s editor-in-chief, Ingrid Seward, once observed in The Daily Mail, “Single-minded, sporty and brave, Princess Anne is unafraid of controversy and cares little for the opinion of others. In other words, she is very much her father’s daughter, in a way that Prince Charles can never be his father’s son.”
Those who knew the family well also noticed the difference. Eileen Parker, whose husband was a close friend of Prince Philip, explained, “Charles is more like The Queen, while Anne is very like Prince Philip. He always had more fun with Anne."That bond was forged early on, not just in personality but in shared passions," Marie Claire reported. As Seward recounted, the duke had “no reservations about letting his daughter expose herself to the dangers inherent in equestrian sport,” with one observer noting, “It was almost as if he treated her as a son.”
Anne, precocious and daring, took to riding faster than Charles ever did. “Charles was still at the end of a leading rein when Anne was already jumping,” Seward once wrote. “She was also galloping before he had properly learned how to trot.” Philip recognized her natural ability and ensured she had the best training, which eventually led her to become the first royal to compete in the Olympics.
Sailing was another shared passion between father and daughter. Philip, who thrived on the sea, passed on his love for the sport to Anne with much greater success than with Charles. Seward noted that the King “was a poor athlete” as a boy, adding that Philip’s attempts to teach him to sail fell flat. Charles, she explained, “was seasick and didn’t respond well either to the hearty disciplines of life on board or being shouted at by his father.”
Her achievements didn’t stop there; the sporting legacy she built extended to the next generation. In 2012, Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall won a silver medal for eventing at the London Olympics. In a full-circle moment, it was Princess Anne herself who presented the medal to her daughter.
For Anne, however, those same lessons stuck, because she and her father spoke the same language, and both of them shared grit, humor, and independence, one that shaped Anne into the royal she remains today.