Princess Anne is widely known as the hardest working royal, but she also proved she has nerves of steel during a kidnapping attempt.

On the evening of March 20, 1974, Anne and her then husband, Mark Phillipswere on their way back to Buckingham Palace after a charity event when a Ford Escort overtook their car and forced them to a halt.

The escort driver, Ian Balljumped out of the vehicle and started shooting a gun. James BeatonAnne’s personal police officer at the time, was shot three times during the altercation.

“It went boom and he shot me in the chest,” Beaton recalled in a March 2024 statement. the BBC. “I tried to shoot back at him with my gun. I missed the first shot and then the gun jammed.”

Beaton was also shot in the hand and abdomen while trying to protect the princess.

“I still have a piece of bullet in my hand,” the now retired inspector told the BBC.

When Ball, who also shot Anne’s driver, Alex CallenderAnd Brian McConnellone nearby Daily email journalist who tried to intervene and order the princess to leave the vehicle, Anne famously replied: “[Not] damn probably.”

According to Smithsonian MagazineAnne later told police she had “a very annoying conversation” with her attempted kidnapper.

“I kept saying I didn’t want to get out of the car, and I didn’t intend to get out of the car,” she reportedly explained to police.

Cop Michael Hills, who was patrolling in the area at the time of the attack, was the first on the scene. Ball shot him in the stomach, but Hills still managed to call for reinforcements before collapsing.

Former boxer Ron Russel was also in the area at the time and witnessed Hill being shot.

“I stopped and heard a lot of banging and banging, which I thought was the general commotion. But then Ball shot a police officer, and I thought, ‘That’s a liberty, he needs to be sorted,'” Russell told police. Eastern Daily Press in 2006.

Russell said he then hit Ball once in the back of the head and once “fairly” on the chin.

“He went downstairs and there were police everywhere,” he remembers.

Ball was subsequently arrested. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping and was sentenced to life in a mental health institution. He is currently being held at Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security psychiatric hospital.

After the attempted kidnapping, police found two pairs of handcuffs and a ransom note addressed to Queen Elizabeth II in Ball’s rental car. According to The guardBall’s plan was to hold Anne to ransom of £3 million and give the money to the National Health Service for the treatment of mental patients.

During a 1980 appearance on the British talk show Parkinson’sAnne recalled being “scrupulously polite” to Ball until he tore her dress.

“I thought it was stupid to be too rude at that moment,” she explained. “The back of my dress tore and that was his most dangerous moment. At that moment I lost my lap.”

Beaton, Hills, Callendar and McConnell were all hospitalized after the ordeal and all recovered from their wounds. For Beaton’s defense of Anne, the Queen awarded him the George Cross, which recognizes acts of extreme courage performed by civilians and military personnel when not in the presence of an enemy.

Hills and Russell received the George Medal, while Callender and McConnell received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

Anne went to visit Beaton in hospital shortly after the attack.

“When Princess Anne came to see me at the hospital, it was quite funny because the staff said, ‘Come on, you have to wear something.’ Cover your chest and all the wounds and stuff,” Beaton told the BBC in March 2024. “I said, ‘Oh, stop it.’ We just said, you know, ‘[We’re] I’m glad we’re all still alive and kicking, so to speak.’”

While most travelers hope to reach ancient sites or historical monuments, one British explorer tries to get as far away from them as possible.

Chris Brown hopes to reach Point Nemo – the most remote place on Earth and the graveyard for hundreds of pieces of space junk.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Point Nemo is so far from any land that the nearest humans are on the International Space Station 250 miles (408 km) above Earth.

If successful, the 62-year-old entrepreneur from Harrogate will become the first Briton to complete a specific expedition to the point.

‘I’m going to try to get in the water if at all possible. “I also expect to open a bottle of bubbly when I get there,” he said.

Mr Brown and his son Mika, 32, set sail aboard the chartered expedition yacht Hanse Explorer from Puerto Montt, Chile, on March 12.

The pair hope to reach Point Nemo on March 20 or 21 if all goes according to plan.

Although Mr Brown says he had considered using a racing yacht to get to the point as quickly as possible, he ultimately opted for the safer option of a more robust vessel.

The luxury yacht usually makes tourist expeditions to Antarctica and is said to pass quite close to Point Nemo.

Mr Brown said that ‘after some negotiation the owners agreed to our little detour.’

The crew’s destination is the so-called Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility, meaning it is the furthest point from land.

From Point Nemo, the nearest land is Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands, which is 2,688 kilometers away.

Besides a few small islands, the nearest major inhabited areas are Wellington, New Zealand and Concepción, Chile, both of which are over 2,500 miles away.

This part of the world is so remote that it has become the most popular place for international space agencies to drop falling space debris.

Since 1971, more than 260 pieces of space debris have found their final resting place in the waters around Point Nemo, including Russia’s Mir space station.

Within the next decade, this remote part of the Pacific Ocean will also be the site of the International Space Station’s downing.

When the ISS lands at Point Nemo, it will actually be seven times further from any human settlement than it is in orbit.

The point has been known since 1992, when a research engineer calculated the furthest point for landing, taking into account the Earth’s ellipsoid shape.

Since its discovery, several ships have approached the point, including Ocean Race participants traveling between Auckland, New Zealand and Itajaí, Brazil.

However, maritime experts have stated that ‘it is possible that no human ever passed through the specific coordinates’.

Nevertheless, Mr Brown appears undeterred by the extreme remoteness of the site.

Ultimately, he hopes to become the first person to reach all eight continental poles of inaccessibility on Earth.

These are the points on each continent that are furthest from any ocean, making them among the most remote places on Earth.

Mr Brown has already reached five of the eight, reaching the poles in Antarctica, Oceania, Africa, North America and South America.

“I don’t consider this as dangerous as my expeditions to Africa or Antarctica,” he said.

‘The obvious danger is that you are miles from anywhere at sea, and you are a long way from any of the shipping lanes, so if there was a problem with the boat help would take a long time to wait. ‘

During the expedition to the Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility, Mr Brown and his son were briefly stranded in temperatures of -28°C after their plane broke down.

But while Mr. Brown may be adventurous, he also seems to have a keen sense of danger.

Last year he came to media attention after it was revealed that he had turned down a spot on the ill-fated submarine expedition to the Titanic.

Mr Brown said he even paid a deposit for a seat on the OceanGate ship.

However, he pulled out of the trip after discovering the submarine would be controlled with games console controllers saying it looked ‘sloppy’.

Mr Brown plans to collect water samples at Point Nemo to test the density of microplastics on their way to the world’s most remote oceans.

In addition to being a dumping ground for space debris, Point Nemo is located in a complex network of circular currents that trap large amounts of waste.

The South Pacific Gyre in which Point Nemo is located is a confluence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Humboldt Current, and the West Wind Drift.

As a result, this region of the Pacific Ocean has become something of an oceanic garbage dump.

Fortunately, this area may also be one of the least biologically active regions of the world’s oceans.

In the 4,000 meter deep waters it is so devoid of nutrients that life can hardly exist.

Scientists have only discovered bacteria and small crabs living in the sea vents on the ocean floor near the point.

The Princess of Wales looked ‘full of energy and incredibly happy’ in images of her smiling with her husband Prince William during a visit to a farm shop in Windsor, a body language expert has claimed.

In the video obtained by The sunKate, 42, who is recovering from abdominal surgery, can be seen with her hair down, wearing a black jacket and leggings, chatting to the Prince of Wales, 41, and carrying a large white bag.

Captured by a member of the public on Saturday, the royal couple were filmed leaving Windsor Farm Shop, a short drive from their home at Adelaide Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, and returning to their car.

The princess’s absence from public life following her surgery on January 16 has led to wild conspiracy theories on social media about her whereabouts and health.

Analyzing the footage, Judi James told FEMAIL that Kate’s “cheerful and cheerful” demeanor is “quite extraordinary body language behavior for a leading royal to be ‘incognito’ in public” and it suggests that, quite naturally, a point is being made in terms of reassuring fans and quashing any rumours.”

The body language expert added: ‘It is nothing short of stunning to see the most sought-after woman in the world and the subject of speculation and rumors on social media suddenly appear like this and not only look healthy, full of energy and incredibly happy, but also to make me happy again. no apparent attempt to hide while in public.

‘While William keeps his face partially hidden under his cap and his head down, Kate’s body language here suggests a desire to be seen.

“Her head is up and her long hair is flowing as she wears a smile across her cheeks that seems to indicate that she is completely cheerful and cheerful.”

Details about Kate’s condition have not been released, but Kensington Palace previously said it was not cancer-related and that the royal family wanted her personal medical information to remain private.

Online speculation increased after irregularities were spotted in a Mother’s Day photo of Kate and her children, leading to the princess admitting to ‘editing’ the image and apologizing for any ‘confusion’ caused.

This was preceded by William’s sudden announcement that he was withdrawing from his godfather’s memorial service last month due to what was only described as a “personal matter”, just 45 minutes before he was due to give a talk.

The future queen has been photographed in public twice since her surgery.

In a photo published March 4, she was a front-seat passenger in a car driven by her mother, Carole Middleton, in the Windsor area.

She was also seen sitting next to William in a chauffeur-driven car last Monday as he attended the Commonwealth Day service in London and she was driven to a private appointment.

The royal couple also spent Sunday morning watching Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis take part in a sporting event, according to The Sun.

It was reported last weekend that she might speak about her health at public meetings, which are not expected to resume until after Easter.

The Sunday Times reported a source saying: ‘They are most open when interacting with the public and I can see a world where the Princess could discuss her recovery during engagements. If she was going to do it, this is how she would do it.”

William and Kate’s children attend Lambrook School in Berkshire, where the summer semester starts on April 17. It is expected that Kate will resume her official duties after this date.

Sources close to Wales have told the Mail that they find the speculation surrounding Kate extremely hurtful and difficult to process, but that they are determined to focus on what is important to them: their family and the princess’s recovery.

The new image, which shows the couple going about their normal lives, is expected to help calm many of the wilder rumors gripping people around the world.

The photo was taken at 12.43pm on Saturday by a member of the public who was also at the farm shop, just a mile’s drive from the Adelaide Cottage home in Wales, on their Apple iPhone 12 Pro phone.

The person involved said they were visiting the store to ‘kill time’ as they met someone on the way to buy an item from Facebook, when they recognized William and Kate and noticed how ‘happy’ they looked.

They saw the couple again in the parking lot and decided to capture the moment to share with their own delighted family.

“When I went in, I looked around and saw them. They all looked happy,” said the person, who wished to remain anonymous.

The Princess of Wales has been spotted leaving Windsor Castle with Prince William – as experts say this is an attempt by the Palace to show ‘she’s up and about’.

Kate Middleton was pictured alongside her husband leaving Windsor Castle today just hours after she apologised for digitally editing a family portrait released on Mother’s Day.

The photo was the subject of a kill notice from several reputable agencies due to the alterations.

With the Prince of Wales heading to Westminster Abbey for the annual Commonwealth Day service today, some speculated that Kate could be joining him in a surprise return to royal duties.

But MailOnline understands that Kate was heading to a private appointment instead. 

Kate had looked out of her window as William appeared to read some notes on his phone as they were swept out of the grounds of Windsor Castle in a blue Range Rover that later dropped William at the Abbey without her.

Royal commentator Michael Cole told MailOnline that her appearance is a ‘pretty obvious attempt to move the story on’ and to show she is ‘up and about’.

The mother-of-three was not expected to be seen in public until after Easter following abdominal surgery and two weeks in a private London hospital in January. Her surprise appearance came as wild online conspiracy theories swirled around the princess and her health.

It came as Kensington Palace came under increasing pressure to release the original Mother’s Day photograph after the Princess of Wales apologised after she admitted she had edited the family portrait of herself sitting with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Experts told MailOnline it was changed using Photoshop and related AI tools.

The world’s major photo agencies later ‘killed’ the picture after noticing signs of digital editing, including a missing part of Princess Charlotte’s sleeve and the misaligned edge of her wrist and skirt, and the positioning of Kate’s zip.

Royal commentator Michael Cole told MailOnline: ‘The fiasco of the faked photograph is a very bad look for the Royal Family at a very difficult time.

‘The apology by the Princess of Wales for manipulating the Mother’s Day image of herself and her children is well meant.

‘It will be accepted by those people who are kind and understanding. Kate is and will remain a popular person with the general public.

‘But it cannot be denied that this episode does reveal a terrible naivety, bordering on foolishness.

‘What was she thinking, imagining she could fool experts whose profession is scrutinising hundreds of photographs every day, to judge whether they are authentic, and worthy of publication, or fraudulent images for immediate deletion?’

He added that today’s appearance in the car with Prince William is ‘a pretty obvious attempt to move the story on’ by giving the media a ‘new, genuine, authentic, real photograph’ of her that has not been Photoshopped.

He continued: ‘This may shows the public that she is, indeed, up and about – but still not well enough to attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey.

‘She has now been pictured three times since her operation but always sitting down; so it is reasonable to conjecture that she is not fully ambulatory yet.

‘This latest appearance will not divert attention from the fact that an official royal photograph has been faked. That is a first. Kensington Palace must now come up with a full and plausible explanation of how and why this cack-handed attempt at media manipulation came about.

‘Otherwise, there is a danger of permanent damage to the credibility of the royal family.

‘It is that serious. At a time when artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to present a false picture of famous people and important events, being scrupulously honest and straightforward in public communication is essential.

‘Nothing else will do.’

This morning the Princess of Wales gave an apology on social media. She said: ‘Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day’. She signed it ‘C’ – for Catherine.

PR experts have described the Mother’s Day photo fiasco as a ‘massive own goal’ and urged royal officials to release the unedited picture in a bid to regain the public’s trust.

Mr Cole said: ‘Lie once and you won’t be believed when you tell the truth. Any hint of trickery undermines the message. Trust once lost is very difficult to regain.

‘I was shocked when America’s Associated Press and London-based Reuters issued a ‘kill notice’ on the Mother’s Day photograph released by the Press Office at Kensington Palace, showing the Princess of Wales and her three children, laughing and happy, an image that it said was taken by Prince William, the Prince of Wales, at their home, Adelaide Cottage, in Windsor Great Park, last week.

‘AP and Reuters are the world’s two most prestigious news agencies; I can say that because I once worked for their biggest rival, UPI. That they should withdraw the photo and warn their clients not to use it, because it had been manipulated at ‘source’ (by Kensington Palace), is a highly damaging indictment.

‘The problem, said AP, was that the hand, wrist and cardigan sleeve of Princess Charlotte, 8, had been altered after the picture was taken – ‘Photoshopped’ in the jargon of the trade. A minor matter? Not so, AP’s top person in Britain told me: ‘For us, it does not matter what the manipulation is, only that it happened’.

‘Quite right. Agencies have to be constantly on their guard against distributing false images, in particular from places like Gaza and Ukraine where warring factions pump out propaganda photographs making the points that they wish the world to see.’

Kensington Palace had initially faced calls to reveal the truth behind the photo after the world’s top picture agencies – including the Press Association – ‘killed’ the image over claims it had been digitally manipulated.

Kate this morning admitted she had edited the photograph and issued a personal apology ‘for any confusion’ it had caused. Sky News’ analysis of the photo’s metadata found the image was taken with a Canon camera and was saved in Adobe Photoshop twice on an Apple Mac. Other experts suggested she may have used an AI tool.

The photo of the mother-of-three beaming with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was the first official picture released of the princess since she under went ‘planned abdominal surgery’ in January.

While the princess publicly took the blame for altering the photo, Kensington Palace said it would not be reissuing the unedited photograph of Kate and her children.

Mr Cole added: ‘Windsor is a world away from a battle front but the principle is the same.

‘Photographic specialists approach their work with forensic skills because they have to be able to spot fakes, as the Princess of Wales now knows if she didn’t before.

‘To think she could doctor such a happy image was well beyond foolish. It was counter- productive and in the extreme.

‘For an object lesson in turning success into failure, this episode is hard to beat.

‘The warm welcome that was at first given by the public to the first official picture of Kate, Princess of Wales, since what was clearly major abdominal surgery on 17 January, has now become doubt in the public’s mind:

‘If we can’t trust the photograph, can we trust what we are being told about the health of the Princess?

‘With so much rumour circulating- most of it cruel, unkind and frankly ridiculous – candour from Kensington Palace and the Prince and Princess of Wales is now not just desirable, it is a must.

‘If we cannot fully believe an innocent Mother’s Day photograph, what’s next? How long before we discover that the Crown Jewels are only paste and pinchbeck?

‘If truth is compromised, credibility goes with it. Big mistake, Kate. Sorry to have to say so when you are unwell but this was not the way to do things.’

Earlier, Kate’s uncle Gary Goldsmith defended the Waleses and claimed they would not have been responsible for altering the image.

The Celebrity Big Brother evictee said: ‘Obviously the family wouldn’t be the ones to do any touch-ups, so if that’s gone through some filter before it’s gone out to the broader world, but they wouldn’t be doing photoshopping themselves.’

He told Good Morning Britain: ‘The smiles on faces said it all for me, I thought it was beautiful.’ Mr Goldsmith added: ‘And this whole ‘sleevegate’ thing, just leave it alone.’

Royal author Omid Scobie, seen as a cheerleader for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, accused the Palace of having a ‘long history of lying’, and said gaining back public trust was now ‘an almost impossible task’.

Scobie wrote on X that if it was an isolated incident, it was an ‘unfortunate error’.

He added: ‘But with the Palace’s long history of lying, covering up, and even issuing statements on behalf of family members without their permission (cc: Prince Harry), it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the public to believe a word (and now photo) they share.

‘Gaining that back at this point is an almost impossible task.’

The princess is known to be a keen photographer and revealed in 2021 that she takes so many family photographs that her children sometimes object.

‘Everyone’s like, ‘Mummy, please stop taking photographs’,’ she said.

The image of Kate and her children, said by the palace to have been taken by Prince William, was posted on social media.

Without an official response from the palace, confusion around the image had fuelled online conspiracy theories about Kate which have swirled on the internet since her abdominal surgery.

Ahead of Kate making her statement, royal commentator Peter Hunt said: ‘This is damaging for the royals. They knew there would be intense interest in any picture they released of Kate.

‘Their challenge is that people will now question whether they can be trusted and believed when they next issue a health update.’

The picture shows Kate sitting in a chair with her arms around Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who are on either side of her, with Prince George standing behind, as all four smile at the camera.

But there was speculation that edits had been made to the left sleeve of Princess Charlotte’s cardigan, and other areas of the picture also raised concerns about possible manipulation.

In the social media post, Kate thanked the public ‘for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months’.

Within hours of the photo being shared around the world, multiple picture agencies issued a ‘kill notification’ – an industry term used to retract a photo previously handed out to publications.

Late on Sunday, the Associated Press became the first agency to ‘kill’ the photo over an ‘inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand’.

While AP said there was no suggestion the photo was fake, it retracted it because it said on closer inspection, the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet the agency’s photo standards.

AP said its editorial standards state that images must be accurate and that it does not use altered or digitally manipulated images.

The agency’s news values and principles explain that minor photo editing, including cropping and toning and colour adjustments, are acceptable when necessary for clear and accurate reproduction and should maintain the authentic nature of the photograph.

Changes in density, contrast, colour and saturation levels that substantially alter the original scene are not acceptable. Backgrounds should not be digitally blurred or eliminated by burning down or by aggressive toning. The removal of ‘red eye’ from photographs is not permissible.

When AP determined the photo appeared to have been manipulated, it issued what is known as a ‘photo kill,’ an industry term that retracted the image and instructed clients to remove the photo from their systems.

‘At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image,’ the AP said in its advisory. ‘No replacement photo will be sent.’

A second agency, Reuters, also withdrew the image ‘following a post-publication review’. ‘We are reviewing the matter,’ a spokesperson said.

Readers on X added a community note to a post from the Prince and Princess of Wales’ account which shared the photo.

It said: ‘This photo is believed to be digitally altered and as a result many major news outlets have pulled the image from their reports.’

The photo of the princess is the first released since she was admitted to the London Clinic, the private hospital where the King underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate, for a planned operation on January 16.

Charles, 75, visited his daughter-in-law’s bedside after being admitted himself on January 26, the 11th day of Kate’s stay.

She was also visited by her husband, William.

Kate left the hospital on January 29, almost two weeks later, and returned to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor.

Details of the princess’s condition have not been disclosed but Kensington Palace said it was not cancer-related and that Kate wished her personal medical information to remain private.

The 42-year-old future queen was last pictured in public during a Christmas Day walk in Sandringham, Norfolk.

Kate is not expected to return to official duties until after Easter, and William, 41, temporarily stepped back from his royal role to juggle caring for her and their children as she recovered.

He returned to royal duties in February and is expected to carry out an engagement linked to his Earthshot environmental prize on Monday, as well as accompanying the Queen at events to mark Commonwealth Day.

Earlier this month the Army was forced into an embarrassing about-turn after suggesting Kate would attend Trooping the Colour on June 8.

Tickets were being sold for the event, with Kate expected to attend in her role as Colonel of the Irish Guards, the regiment which is trooping its colour this year.

However, it is understood the Army did not seek approval from Kensington Palace before publishing the page, and the website was subsequently updated to remove the reference to her.

KIERAN TRIPPIER revealed Harry Kane tried to convince him to sign for Bayern Munich in January.

Newcastle rejected a £12.5million bid from the German giants for the England right-back.

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Trippier, 33, admits the interest was ‘flattering’, with former Tottenham pal Kane telling him to leave the North East for Munich.

The Magpies captain said: ‘I was on holiday in New York and woke up at 5am to be told that Bayern Munich wanted to sign me.

“I thought, ‘This is a bit random.’ At 33, I never thought Bayern would want to sign me, so it was a bigger shock to me than anyone else.

“Harry [Kane] was texting of course, but it just wasn’t the right thing for me.

“He asked if it was true, told me it was warmer than Newcastle and joked a bit.

“But I have never tried to force a departure from the club. I have been loyal to Newcastle.”

Trippier will miss England’s friendlies against Brazil and Belgium at Wembley this month due to a calf injury.

But he is still expected to be part of Gareth Southgate’s Euros squad.

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The 46-cap defender added: “We can’t be afraid to say we can win. We have an incredible team.”

Trippier was part of the squad that reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup before suffering heartbreak in the 2021 European Championship final.

On whether this is a new Golden Generation with Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden, he added: “Yes. It’s crazy because at the last World Cup compared to now all the young players came from nowhere.

“You see the level everyone is playing at now, so hopefully we can go one step further and win the tournament.”

It’s hard to imagine now, but half a century ago the reputation of the late Queen’s only daughter had all but hit rock bottom, and she was unpopular with press and public alike.

Dismissed as arrogant and entitled, Princess Anne had nothing like the reputation for diligent hard work that makes her, today, one of the most popular figures not just in the Royal Family, but the country. 

It is quite a turn-around in esteem. And it all started with an extraordinary kidnap attempt 50 years ago this month to bring it all about.

The lowest point in Anne’s relationship with the public came in July 1970, one month before her 20th birthday.

The Princess had accompanied her brother Charles on a two-day visit to Washington to meet President Richard Nixon at the White House. 

Designed to launch the princess on the world stage instead it ended up as a PR disaster. 

She told one journalist he was ‘talking absolute tripe’, and snapped, ‘I don’t give interviews’ to the rest of them. 

To be fair the American press pack was far less deferential than the Fleet Street ones she grew up with, but the damage was done, and she was dubbed ‘Princess Sourpuss.’ 

Her brother tended to fare better as she acknowledged: 

‘Charles seems to be able to ignore the cameras. I can’t ever forget they are there,’ she said in self-defence.

Unfortunately, she fared little better at home. She found the newly invented royal walkabouts, designed to bring royalty closer to the people, a difficult chore, allegedly telling one little boy he was ‘a silly bugger’.

A noted equestrian, she also hated the ever-present photographers at horse trials. If they came to close for comfort she was famed for telling them to ‘Naff off’ or ‘sod off’ often adding a few other ‘offs’ for good measure. 

For most of the 1970s she became the royal whipping boy for the press. Legendary Daily Mirror agony aunt Margery Proops once compared the royal siblings in an article headlined: ‘Love Him: Hate Her!’ 

As late as 1982 the same paper commented: ‘ A tradition of the Badminton Horse Trials is that during at least one of the three days Princess Anne will lose her temper.’ 

That same summer The Times gave a scathing account of another of her visits to the USA under the ominous headline: ‘Haughty Princess puts Americans in place.’

Gradually she turned this negativity on its head and her popularity increased in three phases. The first came fifty years ago this month when a lone crazed gunman tried to abduct Princess Anne in a bizarre kidnap attempt.

Just four months after their wedding at Westminster Abbey, Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace, along the Mall, following an engagement in the City. 

Suddenly their Austin Princess limousine screeched to a halt when Ian Ball, a 26-year-old unemployed labourer, swerved his Ford Escort in front of the royal car. Ball shot four people including Anne’s chauffeur and her protection officer.

The shocking event not only led to increased security for the royals, but it also helped redefine Princess Anne’s public image.

When details of the Mall shooting emerged, Anne’s calmness in the face of danger, impressed her critics. 

She recalled the events a decade later to chat show host Michael Parkinson. Ball “said I had to go with him. I said I didn’t want to. I was scrupulously polite.’ (Although in fact no-nonsense Anne had said ‘not bloody likely’.) 

She remembered him shooting at the back window as the glass hit her on the head ‘I thought that was a good start’ and crouching on the car floor ‘I literally put my feet over my head and did a backwards somersault onto the road’. 

Rather than giving an ‘oh poor me’ account, the princess had Parky’s audience in stitches when she revealed that when the gunman grabbed her arm ‘the back of my dress split from top to bottom, all the shoulders went actually. That was his most dangerous moment.’ 

As she also told author Brian Hoey ‘it was a good new dress.’ 

Clearly the would-be kidnapper had met his match. As Prince Philip joked later: ‘If the man had succeeded in abducting Anne, she’d have given him the hell of a time while in captivity.’

The second phase of Anne’s popularity developed slowly during the 1980s. It was partly because in Diana, Princess of Wales the monarchy finally had its first fairy tale princess since Margaret thirty years earlier, so the press pack concentrated on the new royal star. 

Anne was left to concentrate on her own projects, making gruelling tours of Bangladesh, India, Beirut, and many parts of Africa on behalf of the Save the Children Fund. 

Rather than relying on photo opportunities to improve her image, Anne adopted a slower, more dedicated approach, until finally the press woke up to the fact that she had been doing these unglamorous, though worthy, projects, year after year.

She also revealed a warmer side to her personality on prime-time TV shows. Two years after appearing on Parkinson in Australia in 1983, she was a guest on Wogan in the UK.

Probably her most memorable TV moment was as when she joined Emlyn Hughes’s team as a panellist on A Question of Sport. 

It was the most watched episode in the show’s 53-year history, with nineteen million viewers.

The third phase rise in Anne’s popularity is the current one. Now aged seventy-three she is at a time of life when previous generations of princesses had faded out of the limelight. 

Her incredible dignity and stoicism in the days after the death of the queen, only a year after the death of Prince Philip, was widely commented on. Who will ever forget her curtseying as the late Queen’s coffin was carried into the Palace of Holyroodhouse? 

She has publicly endorsed Charles in his new role: ‘You know, he is committed to his own level of service, and that will remain true,’ as well as praising Camilla as queen consort. 

Last May Anne was given a starring role at the Coronation, leading 6,000 members of the armed forces from Westminster Abbey back to Buckingham Palace in her ceremonial role as Gold-Stick-in Waiting. 

A month later she was again on horseback alongside her brother Edward and nephew William at the Trooping the Colour ceremony.

This spring her contribution to the family firm has been highlighted time and again. Along with Camilla she has unexpectedly been the public face of the monarchy at a whole range of engagements in the absence of Charles and Kate, and for a time, of William too.

Anne’s never sought praise but she must be delighted when family members publicly voice their admiration for her. 

Zenouska Mowatt, Princess Alexandra’s granddaughter, has said: ‘Ask anyone about the Princess Royal and there would be a resounding show of support for the dedication and hard work she puts into her role. She does it with such ease; she is an inspiration and a superhero figure, really.’

More importantly for Anne’s legacy is how she was won a new set of royal fans. Generation-Z has developed an obsession with her. 

Born after Anne had already been a working royal for three decades the TikTok generation adores the princess’s deadpan sense of humour, her fondness for wearing outfits older than both them and their parents, and her no-nonsense approach to royal duties. 

Her blunt response to the Mall attack, 50 years ago, is also in their list of Anne likes.

‘I nearly lost my temper with him,’ she had later said. ‘But I knew that if I did, I should hit him, and he would shoot me,’ 

One Gen-Z fan recently responded with: ‘She really slays me!’

Which, for those of us from the 20th century, means she’s now a bit of a legend.

Lok Sabha elections 2024: The India bloc has reportedly offered eight at-large LS seats to Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). Bihar has 40 LS seats.

Patna: With the Lok Sabha elections just weeks away, political parties are intensifying their efforts to win the elections. Bihar, which has 40 seats, is of great importance and can play a major role in forming the government. That is why political parties are in the news here and why major developments are taking place every day. In the latest political development, Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar has reportedly offered eight at-large LS seats to Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), India Today reported citing sources.

According to India Today TV sources, the India Bloc in Bihar is also putting pressure on Chirag Paswan and making efforts to bring him to their side. He has been offered eight at-large seats to join the Bihar Grand Alliance. The Mahagathbandhan also offers Chirag’s party two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

The dispute in the Lok Janshakti Party

Due to the dispute between LJP president (Ram Vilas) and MP Chirag Paswan, and his uncle and central minister Pashupati Paras, there is a never-ending delay in seat distribution in the NDA alliance from the BJP. This delay has raised several questions for the NDA alliance.
According to sources, a discussion is on where Chirag and Pashupati Paras can get six seats in the NDA, but both are not ready and want more seats. Paswan is demanding six seats, just like in 2019 when the Lok Janshakti Party was not divided and their MPs won six seats.