Princess Anne’s Attempted Kidnapper Opens Up in New Interview: ‘I Was More Scared Than She Was’
More than 50 years after one of the most shocking royal security breaches in British history, the man behind it, Ian Ball, is back in the spotlight. Now 77, Ball has resurfaced with a disturbing new narrative, claiming he was “more scared than [Princess Anne] was” during his 1974 attempt to kidnap her at gunpoint. Once branded a 'very dangerous loner,' Ball is now a free man, living near Notting Hill, quietly released from Broadmoor psychiatric hospital in 2019. One would have thought time might have cooled his obsession, but clearly, it hasn’t.
In a bizarre new interview with the Daily Mail, Ball insists he’s innocent, sane, and the real victim in a plot he now claims was 'a hoax.' The incident, which saw him ambush the Princess Royal’s car on The Mall and shoot four people, including two police officers, was described at the time as 'horrifying' and 'stranger than fiction.' Yet Ball shows no remorse. “They kept an innocent, sane man in a criminal lunatic asylum because he is a very dangerous working-class dissenter and a grave threat to their luxurious way of living,” he claimed.
Ball had been detained under the Mental Health Act 'without limit of time' following his guilty plea to attempted kidnap and two counts of attempted murder. After being released in 2019, he now lives in west London, where he spends his days pushing flyers and self-publishing books in an attempt to rewrite history. In 1974, Ball stopped Anne’s car near Buckingham Palace, armed with two pistols, and shot multiple people while trying to forcibly remove her from the vehicle. The Princess, then 23, known for her daring nature, famously refused to comply, reportedly telling him, “Not bloody likely.” He now denies she ever said it.
“She wasn’t bothered on the night... I didn’t scare her. I was more scared than she was,” Ball claimed in his interview with the Mail. To support his revised version of events, Ball has written a self-published book titled To Kidnap a Princess under the Alias Anthony Stewart. He describes it as 'dramatic and exciting,' and claims readers will “laugh, cry, and be left in wonder at the indomitability of the human spirit.” Meanwhile, in real life, he hires workers to distribute flyers around London, inviting anyone who 'knew him back then' to help him prove his innocence.
Ball has even dangled rewards, from £50 to £1 million, for anyone who can confirm his claims, which also accuse Queen Elizabeth and 'the upper classes' of framing him. His lack of accountability is perhaps most chilling. When asked if he plans to apologize to the four men he shot, Ball responded: “It would be a waste of time.” While the Ministry of Justice states that those released from psychiatric custody can be recalled if they pose a threat, the idea that a man once deemed a danger to police, the public, and the royal family is now walking free, and completely unrepentant, is unsettling.
According to HELLO!, Anne, who is known to be nonchalant, however, has rarely spoken about it. She mentioned it only once in an interview, sharing, "What is interesting is what you remember and how you remember it, because although I thought I remembered everything that happened, I would never have been able to swear I could remember in the right order. Because they were like photos, individual snapshots. Very clearly."