Princess Anne’s take on the monarchy under King Charles

foreigner this is St James's Palace in London and more than just loo

king

at it, let's go inside this is the private living room of the Royal Princess Princess Anne she opened the room and opened her diary to do something she rarely does conduct an interview with us about things she doesn't usually talk about losing her parents in the space of 18 months, the upcoming coronation, the future of the

monarchy

and Canada, this is our conversation with Princess Anne, so thank you very much for ta

king

the time. I I you know you don't have a lot of that, I mean when I'm in London I tend to pack some when I'm in London, there's a reason Princess Anne is referred to as the hardest working royal, as well as being involved with the most of 300 charities She holds more events than any other member of royalty and carries with her that sense of responsibility that her mother the queen transmitted to her.

On August 15, 1950, her daughter was born, the little

princess

was baptized Ana Isabel Alicia Luisa, the second daughter and The only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, she had her first royal engagement at the age of 18 and began working with Save the Children shortly after and still works with them. Princess Anne this afternoon at the equestrian events in which she is an Olympian she competed in Montreal. 1976. She is a mother of two children and spent her entire life under the watchful eye of the world's cameras, most recently in September, when the queen died, Princess Anne, 72, with her mother until the end for a woman seen so often not.

I haven't done many interviews yet, she sat down with us before the coronation for an exclusive Canadian conversation. We are very close to this moment. Here we are again with the coronation story. Forgive me if this is a naive question, but I know how on Earth. Are you ready for that good question? um we've been very lucky that my mother was queen for a long time and although you know this could happen you don't really think about it much, especially since the

monarchy

is about continuity, but I think for my brother this is something that you've been waiting for and probably spent more time thinking about it, for the rest of us it's more a question of whether we need to change the way we support and that's it. what we have to do and what that change is like for you um well, that's what we don't know yet, I mean there was an order in the years um because my mother didn't change much and she more or less knew what the rhythm of the year was. for things like that to change and how we are part of supporting the monarchy made it change a little bit who knows and when you hear sometimes people refer to a slimmed down monarchy, I can't imagine what that could mean for a role like yours.

I don't know how many more hours in the day you have to

take

care of more things. I think how skinny Dan was was said on a day when there were a few other people around to do that. It seems like a justifiable right. A comment. The world changes a little. It changes a little. I mean, from where I stand, it doesn't seem like a good idea. I have to say I'm sure because I'm pretty sure what else you know we can do. make a few more royals were actually in the job not long ago, get Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Megan off the list, plus the loss of the Queen and Prince Philip, and what you'll end up seeing at the coronation It's a decidedly smaller one. contingent looking uh for those of us who watched during the coronation some of the details haven't been released yet, but is there a time when they aren't?

I'm waiting for them to tell me that I haven't asked too many questions. Smart in terms of my role I have a role as core of the Blues and role in the iso Calvary regiment as Gold Stick and Gold Stick was the original Closed Protection Officer so that is a role I was asked if I would like to play for this coronation, so he said yes, not least, I was also my leadership problem, certainly it's also an interesting metaphor in a way, a close protection officer, that role of the king for your brother in terms of carrying forward part of the continuity of what you have seen. being with him oh a little I will be different throughout the service will be different in many ways uh he was old enough to have gone to my mother's coronation.

I don't know what his impressions were. He was not allowed to me. probably quite rightly happen at that stage of my career, um, it could have been a lot more trouble than it was worth on the second day of June in the year 1953. Elizabeth is brought here to be anointed as Elizabeth II. It will be a very different scene and When you look at the Abbey now, when you go to events and you think, how did they get that many people there and there won't be that many there? There are so many things in that service that you really have to do.

I mean, that's fundamentally important and that's the meaning of the coronation in every sense, it's not just a big ceremony, it's a very essential part of the responsibilities of the crime with a crown of love. I realized you weren't there. I've seen the photos of that curly blonde head on the balcony. I don't know if your memories are formed by seeing images or if it's actually a problem. You don't really know if you're a membrane. Actual memories or yes You are so motivated by photographs that that is what you think you remember well. So no, I don't have many memories.

I am apart of the group of young people who were left behind. I suspect there was an argument over who stayed. the rocking horse but I wonder who won that he um time of day but we wouldn't be having this conversation if it weren't for not that long ago it's still very fresh he lost his mother the queen this is something that everyone in the world can I understand the private loss here. I think that no matter how old you are when you lose a parent, you are still a child at that time. Well, the relationship tends to stick if you're lucky and remains very similar throughout your life.

Yes, we have an impression of what we saw because of all the cameras, the cameras were often so fixed on you, so fixed on you while you were making that trip behind the vehicle, is it blurry? Is it sharp? Were you able to

take

anything from in uh no, I think we took a lot partly because we knew the route and I actually saw people I knew along the way. It was such an impressive site and it was more than that because it was really moving along the way. that people responded and how they did things and you know people got their ponies and horses out, but not only did they get them out, but they took care of them properly, it turned out they got their tractors out and parked them, you know?

With the tide, they are all clean and if you come from a rural background, I was very impressed. You know, it was just an amazing sight, but the sheer number of people showed up in pretty extraordinary places. Well, you'll never miss it. He misses that and the atmosphere. What created leaving Balmoral is never easy, but it never has been and that was just as bad when I was alive as a child. Why didn't I like leaving? You were happy there, yes, and your mother, the queen, was obviously very happy there. It was very much a place that I think always fit that time of year.

There was a real relaxation. Rarely a concept associated with the late Queen or the 72-year-old Princess Anne. For a few years in a row, she has been officially declared the hardest worker. The appearances of Royal 214 just last year it's been fascinating from our perspective to take a look at their schedule trying to navigate a place for this and it really does seem to be scheduled sometimes to the minute and that's by design that duty is that. wish, oh it's a mix, I think it's certainly by Design, uh, because it's really the only way to organize your life, so covid must have been a terrible lockdown for that kind of work, certainly a good lockdown from everyone's perspective, but it was intriguing to notice how people there was the word they kept using here pivoted, so it pivoted using the strengths of what they did before to deliver it slightly differently, sometimes at home we talk about covert like A thief in that store with many people, did he steal? from you um in some ways um I guess I tend to think that he stole a little bit from my father who you know lost a lot of the people who would have gone to see him and talk to him and you know they had those conversations that kept him going. interested and lost, he lost all that.

I'm sure there are many families that will tell you the same thing as the previous generation, losing those contacts, the ability to know online was not for everyone, I mean me. I'm sorry to mention it, but I think of that image of your mother, the Queen, alone, yes she was a thief, yes, yes, you're absolutely right and in a way I'm glad we didn't see that at the time and then When you see the photograph it is much worse of her yes and you saw more of that than us accompanying the coffin it was the covid restrictions that imposed that lonely pain on the queen in April 2021 at her husband's funeral. spanning seven decades, Prince Philip's death seemed to start a chain of momentous royal events, all within 18 months, some heartbreaking moments for the family, but also a moment like no other in British history, the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, The feeling was extraordinary, it was loud, it was strident. but in the crowd you kept hearing people say thank you man, thank you yes and I was wondering then if your mother, the queen, knew that they were saying thank you, did she feel that gratitude? um, I suspect she would have, she would have noticed, right?

Have fun, yeah, I think it's a pretty long weekend for that to be that much fun, but I think when she got to the end, she realized that everyone had appreciated it and that really made a difference, but so To say it, it was almost like that. It seems like another era, it's a time when feelings about the monarchy are hardening and don't think members of the royal family don't notice when we return. Will there be conversations about relevance? There will be everywhere. It's not a conversation I would necessarily make. I think it's perfectly true that this is a time when it's necessary to have that discussion.

In the fairy tale of kings and

princess

es, there are concrete facts, including the reality that the overall relationship with the British royal family is frankly changing. There are countries all over the planet that want to cut their ties with the British royal family. They do not want the Monarch as head of state. This is not something that the royal family ignores. There is a growing movement in the United Kingdom and Canada protesting the The holes in the British monarchy in both countries suggest that young people in particular are chilling sixty percent of Canadians, regardless of their age, suggesting that they do not support to Carlos as king because we are in this moment of transition.

I think it's not unnatural that people are having conversations about the monarchy and the place of the monarchy in several countries, including Canada, and some of the recent polls suggest that there is a drop in the percentage of people who would like to see it continue. the monarchy. How do you handle that as a family? Well, in many ways we don't need to deal with that and not least because the monarch is the key to this and the Constitution is what sustains the monarchy that we as a family see ourselves as supporting that role, what we do we hope will contribute. to the monarchy and the way it can convey continuity not only of interest but of service of understanding the way people in communities want to live their lives and I think we often have the opportunity to see communities and people who do things really well and they are very generous with their time in a way that if you look at the media you don't usually get that impression of whether there will be conversations about relevance.

Everywhere is not a conversation I would necessarily have. I think it is perfectly true that this is a time when it is necessary to have that discussion, but I would simply emphasize that the monarchy provides with the Constitution a degree of long-term stability that is actually quite difficult to achieve in any other way and when we think about this duty, this role that the King has taken on, what kind of King do you think he will be? Well you know you're getting it because you've been practicing for a bit and I don't think it will change, you know you're committed to your own level of service which will continue to be true, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales tangibly, although what will do?

What measures will be taken? I want to recognize that the roots of our contemporary Association lie deep in the most painful period of our history. I cannot describe the depths of my personal pain. They are the suffering of so many people. As I continue to deepen my own understanding of the lasting impact of slavery, there are some signs that he is. Aware of the mistakes and the ways in which the royal family did not seem to speak out before the king took action after weeks of harsh coverage in the United Kingdom about the monarchy's links to slavery, it is not a new issue, but the The palace's response was new.

Buckingham Palace says it is by cooperating with an independent study into the links between the British monarchy and the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, it did something interesting not long ago by offering tacit support for research into slavery links with the monarchy that has justopen and said absolutely one look, well, you know more than I do because I suspect that's the media's interpretation of that particular deal. Which one is yours? Who came up with that idea? Is there a different meaning? Have? It's not really a topic of conversation that I would even go down um a historical perspective that is slightly different um maybe more realistic and witches don't the historical perspective just goes back much further and modern contexts are very different slavery hasn't gone no, come on, don't focus too much on time scales and periods, history is not like that, recognizing the British monarchy's place in colonization in slavery will be one thing for the institution, but act accordingly to find a new path forward that would require generations of work when we return to the definitive vision of Insider. of the state of the monarchy does not sound concerned about the health or longevity of the monarchy I think that no one was in my mouth as they say for an institution and family so steeped in Tradition change is coming regardless of whether they want it or not The atmosphere in the The United Kingdom seems more cautious than festive and then there is Canada, the ties of the royal family are very strong.

Princess Anne has visited the country more than 20 times and is on her way back. What makes her come back? What do you think about the future relationship between Canada and Crown? A look at the CBC archives uncovers a treasure trove of real footage from so many trips over the decades and it seems a lot of effort was put into making those trips appear casual. Take a look at this Yellowknife barbecue in 1970. The big crowds should just watch it eat a burger, the opportunity to meet a lot of Canadians and that's what has been a great pleasure.

My ties to this land and the people of it are deep. Princess Anne appears seemingly everywhere in the north, in big cities, and most notably as an Olympian at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Princess Anne this afternoon at the equestrian events and the goal is Anne's ambition. All athletes People I've talked to at the Olympics always say that despite all the training they do for everything they know is about to happen, the experience of the Olympics changes them, that's probably true, but it's a different competition because very often with your own national championships or anything else, you go in and out, you know you go in, you do your competition and you go out, you go to the Olympics, there's more time. in your hands and it's quite a different discipline for some people and not everyone approaches their training regimen the same way when they have that kind of time available, so yeah, it changes you a little bit because you have to be able to adapt to be able to Coop I think it rained overnight in Montreal very slippery out there that's the fall your injury or your fall in Montreal do you remember much of that?

I mean, you don't really know that well. No I don't remember I barely remember starting I certainly don't remember finishing so um and I don't remember the fall and funnily enough until I saw the video afterwards that was actually quite interesting it must have been very strange. seeing it without remembering it was pretty strange um I think the horse did a pretty good job of staying upright um because even though he fell he didn't turn around which would have been a lot more painful but there was a fence after I got back up where he put his foot between the takeoff and the fence itself and I thought that could have been much more unpleasant, but no, I don't remember, but she is brave and is back up, that memory may not exist, but there are other trips of the to take advantage of.

Decades of handshakes, cookouts and endless photographs, and he will soon return for his first trip to Canada since Covid was short to honor a long connection with the 8th Canadian Hussars in which he became their colonel. in Chief in 1972 has supported them since he will return to New Brunswick for his 175th anniversary in May and, aside from this anniversary, why this trip, why right now, well, why this trip is his 175th anniversary, which is not It is a minor achievement and although it is no longer a regular regiment, all that history is still there and reflects a lot of the local community and it is still important that they support it too because that is a skill set and a spirit of service that really does not I don't want to lose it, you know it will always be necessary.

Is there any time in the program for something like resting? Not in this one no not in this one um and mine, I actually have grandchildren that go to New Brunswick on vacation. I know the beaches, um, because they are really good beaches, but no, this time of year is too difficult, really, sometimes she is asked if she will retire soon, which seems completely out of the question for Princess Anne, she is still determined to serve and determine that. Service is important, monarchy is important when people gather for the coronation. Is there anything you would like them to hold while they watch what happens?

Something you would like them to think about you. Yeah, I mean, I think there's that historical perspective. Um and it's important now, I think because a lot of what we've seen here is largely in the now and maybe fads you know have their place, but long term commitment has a lot to offer, you don't seem worried. about the health or longevity of the monarchy um I think you're putting words in my mouth like they say are you so would you say you're you're not you're although I mean I'm I wouldn't I wouldn't I mean just Because I think there's a genuine benefit to this. particular agreement of the constitutional monarchy and I think it has good long-term benefits and that long-term commitment is what the monarchy represents, Joh

anne

s, thank you very much for your time, really. complicated