Princess Anne’s Children Peter and Zara Still Stick to Two Balcony Rules She Laid Down Years Ago
Princess Anne is best known for her no-nonsense attitude and a blunt personality sharp enough to cut through glass. The Princess Royal is also the hardest-working member of the royal family and a stickler for royal protocol, reflecting her deep respect for the Crown. Speaking about the same, her son Peter Phillips once revealed in an ITV documentary that his mother enforced strict rules for him and his sister, Zara Tindall, while on the Palace balcony. Phillips recalled that Anne would give them a smack around the ear if they misbehaved in front of the public.
Speaking in the ITV documentary, Anne: The Princess Royal at 70, Phillips recalled the consequences he and his sister faced if they acted smart on the Palace balcony. As reported by Hello! magazine, he said, "You then get a clip round the ear and say, 'Behave yourself, you know, we're going out on the balcony. Don't pick your nose and you know, don't yawn." His revelations about Anne’s discipline come as little surprise, given her reputation for correcting unruly children on the balcony. In 1987, photos captured her attempting to calm a mischievous four-year-old Prince William during an RAF flypast, a display of her no-nonsense approach.
Anne has spoken about maintaining discipline at royal events during a 2020 interview with Vanity Fair. She opened up about playing her part in protecting the traditions of the royal family. During the interview, she described herself as "the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back saying, 'Don't forget the basics.'" She also issued a stern warning for the family's younger generation, "I don't think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past, and it's often true, isn't it? You don't necessarily look at the previous generation and say, ‘Oh, you did that?' Or 'You went there?'" She continued, "Nowadays, they're much more looking for, 'Oh let's do it a new way.' And I'm already at the stage, 'Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We've been there, done that.'"
The Princess Royal has never shied away from speaking about her love for royal etiquette, no matter what the younger generation feels about them. In the 1981 documentary, Princess Anne: Her Working Life, she asserted that establishing the correct demeanor for regular public engagements doesn't "come that easily", but that you must be "nice and bright and cheerful, [even if you may not necessarily] feel like it." She added that royals must be "nice and bright and cheerful" when meeting well-wishers on their travels across the UK and abroad.
Coming back to Anne's strict rules for her children, the Princess Royal had outrightly refused to give them royal titles despite the late Queen's wishes. Anne spoke about her decision in the Vanity Fair interview, saying, "I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles. So I think that was probably the right thing to do." Similarly, Phillips and Tindall's children also do not hold a royal title, honoring their mother's wishes.