Princess Anne Asked Earl Spencer One Question at a Palace Dinner — He 'Turned Red' and Couldn't Answer
The Earl is making several explosive revelations about the royal family, and this time it is about the 'hardest-working' royal, Anne.
Princess Anne is known for her no-nonsense personality and famously direct way of speaking. But according to Earl Spencer, her bluntness once left him feeling rather small. The Earl, in his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is making several explosive revelations about the royal family, and this time it is about the 'hardest-working' royal, Anne.
In his new memoir, Charles Spencer looks back at some of his earliest encounters with members of the royal family. One particularly awkward moment came just days before the 1981 wedding of his sister, Princess Diana, to then-Prince Charles. At that time, the Earl was only 17 years old and was invited to a formal meal at Buckingham Palace ahead of the royal wedding. He recalled being seated next to Anne, who had recently had her daughter, Zara Tindall, christened. In an attempt to strike up a conversation, he asked the Princess about the event.
The Earl recalled that, to his "alarm", he tried to steer the conversation, expecting "Anne to run away with the happy topic of her baby Zara's baptism. But instead, she stopped, looked at me witheringly, and asked, 'Tell me, how's a christening supposed to go?'" Spencer admitted that he was completely caught off guard by the response. Back then, he "turned red and looked at my plate." He then looked across the room and noticed his brother-in-law, Neil McCorquodale, chatting with the Crown Princess of Japan.
Looking back on the experience, Spencer suggested that the atmosphere of a royal dinner could depend heavily on who you happened to be seated beside. He added, "It was the luck of the draw that night, whether you were placed next to a royal who was happy to make you feel small, or one that had the grace and manners to look for common ground, wherever it might be found." The anecdote offers a very different glimpse of Anne than the image of the practical, down-to-earth royal often described today.
The palace has not yet reacted to any of Spencer's claims, but a Buckingham Palace spokesperson previously issued a statement. They said, "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss."
