Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are set to return to Britain later this month, but winning over the King and the Waleses may be only half the battle. There is another formidable royal waiting in the wings - and Princess Anne may prove a considerably tougher nut to crack.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit royal life in 2020, swapping Britain for California, but they did not leave quietly. What followed was six years of grievances about the institution they once represented, from Oprah and Netflix to Harry's memoir Spare. The couple made serious allegations about their treatment, while Harry, 41, exposed intensely private disputes involving his father, brother and sister-in-law.
The no-nonsense royal they may struggle to win over
The Princess Royal is about as far removed from the Sussex brand of royalty as it is possible to get. There are no Netflix cameras following Anne around, no tell-all memoir and precious little interest in turning royal service into celebrity. Instead, the King's 76-year-old sister has spent decades building a reputation around something rather less glamorous: turning up, getting on with the job and doing it all again the next morning.
Working royals collectively undertake hundreds of engagements each year, and Anne has long been one of the most prolific members of that operation. She is also famously direct. When a would-be kidnapper ordered her out of her car in 1974, Anne's legendary response was: “Not bloody likely.” That tells you quite a lot in three words.
Harry and Meghan, 45, have embraced a distinctly American model of celebrity since leaving Britain - streaming deals, television appearances, lifestyle ventures and highly personal interviews. Princess Anne remains the embodiment of the old-fashioned royal stiff upper lip. Something tells me the Californian sales pitch may not travel particularly well with Aunt Anne.
Harry's 'obsessed' swipe could prove awkward
Then there is an uncomfortable passage from Spare. While Harry never named Anne when he criticised the way royal workloads were measured, his comments inevitably raised eyebrows because his aunt has so frequently dominated those annual engagement tallies. Writing about the Court Circular, the official record of royal engagements, Harry claimed “certain family members” had become “obsessed” with recording the highest number of duties.
He said they were “feverishly striving” to top the annual tally and suggested some counted interactions he and Prince William, 44, would never have considered engagements. Harry branded the system “rigged”, arguing that King Charles controlled the resources determining how much work he and William could undertake. But the irony is difficult to miss. For years, the Princess Royal has been labelled one of Britain's “hardest-working royals” precisely because of her extraordinary workload.
Princess Anne represents everything the Firm still expects
The King may understandably want his younger son back in his life. And Prince William has his own deeply personal decision to make about whether their fractured relationship can ever be repaired. But reconciliation with individuals is very different from rebuilding trust across the wider Firm, and this is why Princess Anne matters to Harry's homecoming.
Harry and Meghan are returning as non-working royals, not simply sliding back into their old Palace jobs. Anne was there before Meghan arrived. She remained when Harry left. And through bereavement, scandal, family departures and the King's health problems, she simply kept working. No Californian reinvention required.
Harry and Meghan may understandably focus on King Charles, William and Catherine as they navigate their extraordinary return. But I wouldn't underestimate Aunty Anne. The Sussexes have become very good at telling their story. Princess Anne has spent a lifetime believing the job is simply to get on with it.
