The surprising reason why Prince William 'annoys' his aunt Princess Anne is revealed
But perhaps their work goals differ ever-so slightly - as several sources claiming to be close to the Princess Royal, 74, told The Sunday Times that the King's sister would like to see her nephew do more 'bread-and-butter' royal engagements.
For instance, only the monarch, Princess Anne and Prince William perform the investitures, the formal ceremonies where those who have been awarded a royal honour receive their insignia.
Many of these take place at Windsor Castle, near the Prince of Wales' home of Adelaide Cottage.
A source close to Princess Anne told the publication: 'She's still doing most of the investitures [at Windsor] even though William lives there. It annoys her.'
The Royal Family's official website notes that around 30 Investitures are held each year, with over sixty recipients attending each ceremony, either in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, or in the Grand Reception Room at Windsor Castle.
'Investitures also happen occasionally at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, or overseas during State or Royal visits,' adds the site. 'Investitures are hosted by The King, The Princess Royal and The Prince of Wales.'
Elsewhere in The Sunday Times article, published ahead of the royal's 75th birthday, it was revealed that Princess Anne's injuries after suffering a concussion last year were 'much worse' than the public knew at the time.
The Princess Royal was admitted to intensive care last June with concussion and head injuries after reportedly being kicked by a horse at her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire.
She was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol for tests, treatment and observation, before returning to duties that July.
Now, a source said to know Anne well has told The Sunday Times that her accident was 'so much worse' than initially revealed at the time.
They said: 'Her accident was so much worse than anyone let on and it took quite a while for her to feel herself again.'
Following her accident, Anne was forced to miss at least nine engagements, including a trip to Canada and a banquet for the Japanese State Visit in London.
When Anne returned to work in July, she was seen sporting a black eye.
Prince William and Kate shared a rare personal message on X/Twitter, writing: 'Super trooper! So great to see you back so soon. W&C x.'
The royal, a skilled horsewoman who competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, was going for a walk when the incident occurred.
The Princess Royal is often regarded as the 'hardest working' member of the royal family. Last year, Anne clocked up 474 engagements, with King Charles completing 372.
She has been a cornerstone in the King's slimmed-down working monarchy, and has played a big role by stepping up in support of Charles amid his cancer diagnosis.
The Princess is known for her no-nonsense approach and her commitment to royal duty, and the King made a point of making public his 'fondest love and well-wishes' for his sister after her accident.
Anne was understood at the time to have been taking an evening stroll on her estate with horses nearby when she was hurt.
The Princess was left with minor wounds to the head. Her medical team are understood to believe the injuries were consistent with a potential impact from a horse's head or legs.
In January, speaking out about the accident for the first time, Anne said she remembers 'nothing' about it.
Talking at the Grand Military Cup Day at Sandown Park Racecourse in Esher, Surrey, after a whirlwind trip to South Africa, Anne revealed that she was on the way to see chickens on her estate when the accident happened.
When questioned whether the last thing she recalled was walking into a field, Anne said: 'No, I don't even remember that.
'I know where I thought I was going and that was to go to the chickens, no, nothing to do with horses.'
She added that seeing the chickens was 'my regular visit, I don't have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way.
'It just... shows you - you never quite know, something [happens], and you might not recover.'
Anne spent five nights in hospital after the accident on June 23 and did not return to public royal duties until almost three weeks later.
Asked about any lasting ill effects, she lightened the mood and joked: 'Apparently not, at least I don't think so. As far as I know, nobody else thinks so - they haven't been honest enough to tell me yet. So far so good.'
She added: 'You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus really.'
Interviewed after a whirlwind two-day tour of Cape Town, Anne also discussed her future and was asked whether retirement was an option, she replied: 'It really isn't written in, no. It isn't really an option, no, I don't think so.'
Her father, the late Duke of Edinburgh, did retire from royal duties in 2017, but he was 96 when he took the decision and had supported Queen Elizabeth II for more than 65 years at the time.
Anne is known for her busy work schedule, and as she approaches her 75th birthday in August, the royal will continue to lead the monarchy in various engagements.
She carried out her first public engagement in 1969 aged 18 when she opened an educational and training centre in Shropshire, and a year later, she began her longest association with a charity, becoming president of Save the Children and later patron.
Anne has two children - Peter Phillips, 47, and Zara Tindall, 44 - from her first marriage to Captain Mark Phillips, before their divorce in 1992. She has been married to Sir Timothy Laurence since December that year.
Anne said: 'I don't think there's a retirement programme on this particular life. You're jolly lucky... if you can continue to be more or less compos mentis and last summer I was very close to not being.'
She added: 'Take each day as it comes, they say.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
7 hours ago
- The Independent
Tributes paid to Sir David Nabarro, the World Health Organisation's special envoy for Covid-19
Sir David Nabarro, the World Health Organisation 's special envoy for Covid-19, has died at the age of 75. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director-general, expressed profound sadness, praising Sir David's dedication to global health and equity. Sir David spent 17 years at the United Nations, where he expanded nutrition programmes and addressed health crises including malaria, bird flu, and Ebola. He was appointed as the WHO's special envoy for Covid-19 in 2020, becoming a regular presence on news programmes throughout the pandemic. Sir David was knighted at Buckingham Palace in March 2023 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to global health. Sir David Nabarro, WHO's special envoy for Covid-19, dies aged 75
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Paramedic and circus star, 30, is handed a shock diagnosis just weeks before a dream trip - after seeking help for one common niggling symptom
Paramedic and circus performer Paige Footner faces daunting situations every day - but she experienced an entirely new kind of fear when her world was turned upside down in June. She was meant to be jetting off on the trip of a lifetime, a whirlwind international adventure that would take the Adelaide-based star to the glittering stages of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the training halls of Quebec's elite circus schools. Instead, the 30-year-old now finds herself facing a different journey - one of brain scans, hospital beds and the terrifying unknown. Just weeks before she was set to board a plane to Scotland, Paige was dealt a devastating blow after doctors discovered a four-centimetre tumour growing inside her brain. 'I'd paid for everything on my credit card already,' Paige told FEMAIL. 'I have $13,000 to pay off from it - and I hadn't brought my travel insurance yet.' Thinking she had a full bill of health, Paige was beyond excited to jet off on June 27 and participate in paid shows at her favourite performing arts showcase in Scotland. 'I was supposed to be there right now performing, then we found the brain tumour.' Paige had been training hard too, working two shifts per week as a paramedic and honing her talents as one of Australia's best Cyr wheel performers the rest of the time. 'The circus is more than a full-time job,' she said. 'And because I'm 30, I'm considered old in circus, so I'm really trying to make it, and I just give it all I have.' However, after gruelling long hours perfecting her talents, Paige felt something wasn't right. It wasn't physical signs of distress that we're affecting her though. Paige had been living with a persistent sound in her ear, a condition known as tinnitus, for four years. It was frustrating, but not alarming, and in her line of work as both a circus artist and paramedic, a few knocks to the head weren't unusual. 'I had unilateral pulsatile tinnitus in one ear. It wasn't ringing, it was more of a whooshing and pulsing in my ear,' she explained. 'I mentioned it to my GP, because it can be a sinister sign of something, and then they referred me to an ENT. Eventually it showed I had some damage to the nerves on the left side.' Doctors suspected it was linked to a minor head injury during training. But out of caution, Paige finally booked an MRI scan on June 6. That scan revealed something entirely unexpected: a brain tumour, sitting in her posterior right frontal lobe. And what's more unsettling, the tumour had absolutely nothing to do with her ear symptoms. 'It was a completely incidental finding,' she said. 'The tumour was in the wrong spot to cause the tinnitus. 'Both neurosurgeons said I was so lucky, because the tumour isn't causing me any symptoms. So in a way, circus saved my life.' Paige's tumour appears slow-growing, but its atypical structure had doctors concerned. 'Next I had PET scan, and they found no other tumors, but there still is now a question mark over what it is because of these atypical findings,' she said. With some of the features looking irregular, there's a possibility it could be more serious than a standard meningioma. Surgery for Paige is essential, and the full nature of the tumour - whether it's benign or malignant - won't be known until it's removed and biopsied. 'Meningiomas are benign. But there are three different grades of meningiomas, and you don't know the grade until it goes to the lab. That is better than a cancerous tumour though,' she explained. From all if this, Paige's world shifted in an instant. Her shows were cancelled. Her flights, scheduled for Jun 27th, were immediately called off. And her dreams of spinning across a global stage this year vanished overnight. After her impending brain surgery, Paige won't be able to drive for six months, which means that she won't be able to work as a paramedic - a significant portion of her income. 'To lose that for six months is a huge stress, as well as losing my performing income and then having to pay back all of my overseas trip, and medical bills,' she said. Initially, she didn't want anyone to know of her diagnosis. 'I felt vulnerable and scared and weak, and that's so far from how I normally see myself,' she said. 'In circus, I'm known for being incredibly brave. When you're facing scary tricks, you can overcome them with mental grit and determination. But this was different. There was nothing I could do to change the diagnosis, and that left me feeling so powerless.' Paige told only her boss, asking him to keep the real reason for her absence private. However, he knew that sharing it would bring support and he convinced her to open up. Going public with her diagnosis turned out to be a turning point. What began as a deeply isolating experience soon transformed into a moment of overwhelming connection and meaning. 'Before I told anyone, I was crying myself to sleep because I didn't know how I was going to survive the next six months financially. I was so stressed. And I was having really dark thoughts,' she said. One of the most painful, she confessed, was realising how much of life she feared she might never get to experience. 'My first thought when they told me was, "I'm going to die, and I've never been in love". I've never had a boyfriend. Every little girl dreams of finding true love, and I just thought… that might never happen for me,' she said. But the outpouring of love and support from her community helped Paige reframe the journey ahead. 'I didn't know how much of a difference I'd made in people's lives until now,' she said. 'For me, life is about being part of a community and making a positive impact in other people's lives. And I had no idea that I'd done that until I until this. 'I guess I've achieved my purpose in life.'
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Researchers warn of 'quiet crisis' facing NHS Scotland
This "lifeblood of future healthcare innovation" is "quietly being drained away," with a reported 30% drop in the most active cohort over the past decade. They cite a complex combination of factors, including a lack of ring-fenced funding to train and support clinical researchers, inequalities that lead to challenges for female and minority researchers, competitive disadvantages compared to English institutions, and extensive time commitments required to complete training and enter the profession. Despite the challenges, the authors highlight the important contributions of Scotland's clinical researchers and what is potentially at risk of the trend of decline continues. "In economic terms, investment in medical research pays dividends—every £1 spent returns around £1.25 annually to the wider economy. "Scotland has long punched above its weight in this field. From pioneering bowel cancer screening programmes using the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), now central to early detection efforts worldwide, to the EAVE-II platform, which was instrumental in understanding vaccine effectiveness during COVID-19, our clinical academics have delivered innovations with national and global impact." Prof Rory McCrimmon, one of the authors of the letter and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee, explained how these types of contributions are at risk of becoming increasingly scarce. He said that there are more academics over the age of 55 than under the age of 35. Clinical researchers now make up just 3% of the overall workforce, and only 0.6% of primary care workers are clinical researchers. Prof Rory McCrimmon has argued that clinical researchers need more practical and financial support in order to continue performing their life-saving work. (Image: University of Dundee) He added that the shrinking supply of clinical academics, combined with the baked-in challenges in the field, is adding immense stress on researchers. "It is undoubtedly harder to do out-of-programme research at the PhD or MD level, because obtaining funding for that is challenging. "Students leave university now with a larger amount of debt, and it takes a long time. It takes maybe ten to fifteen years to become a consultant. If you add a further three to five years of research on top of that, that's an incredibly long time to become a clinical academic. "I think it is also perceived to be really, really hard, because you are moving into a very competitive world." Read more: Prof Lorna Marson, Dean of Clinical Medicine at Edinburgh and a contributor to the open letter, said that clinical researchers have a significant impact on their patients and communities, in addition to their broader contributions to the economy and the field. "Research-active hospitals have better outcomes for their patients in terms of morbidity and mortality. "Also, engaging in clinical trials gives patients the opportunity to get expensive drugs for no cost. "There are many significant added values to being a patient in a research hospital, so we need to support that as much as we can." Prof Lorna Marson has said that barriers to people looking to break into clinical research should not distract from the passion that these academics have for their profession. (Image: University of Edinburgh) Prof Marson added that the decline in the number of clinical academics was not due to a lack of ambition in the profession and that better general support for researchers could make the career more feasible for many hopefuls. 'It's extraordinary that there are still a good number of people who want to do this. I think that demonstrates the huge commitment that people are bringing to this field, and therefore, we have to support them and help them if it's what they want to do. 'But it is exceptionally difficult for women who also want to have time out to have a family, or those who have caring responsibilities and wish to prolong their training. 'Using women as an example, we need to look for ways to support them not only to have time out to have families, but to undertake their research and continue in clinical academia. That is where we see the biggest drop-off, and it is not because they don't passionately want to stay. 'They just can't see a way through it.' All of this is against a backdrop of extreme competition for funding. Prof Ian McInnes CBE, co-author of the letter and Vice Principal and Head of College, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow, called it a 'sadness' that young researchers are facing barriers to the profession at a time when there are many new opportunities on the horizon. 'Increasingly, academicians of the future will be data scientists. They'll be computing scientists. They'll be business scientists with MBAs and organisational design specialists. 'One of the ambitions I have for Scotland is that we actually become a model for an incredibly diverse community of academic clinicians with expertise in so many different areas.' Due to the interconnectedness of the UK higher education sector, Scottish researchers and institutions are in direct competition with their English counterparts. But different structures and priorities mean they are not always on an even playing field, Prof McInnes explained. In England, for example, the time of clinical academics is often divided evenly between clinical work and research. However, in Scotland, the divide is closer to 80% clinical and 20% research time. 'That 80% grows arms and legs, because clinical medicine is busier, clinical surgery is busier, clinical psychiatry is busier. So we're at a substantial disadvantage in Scotland compared to England.' There are also significant financial awards available only in England, which can further limit opportunities for Scottish researchers. Despite this, Prof McInnes was clear that the situation is not a case of finding fault. The different structures north and south of the border represent different strategies and priorities. The Scottish Government is currently pursuing health innovation projects through its Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) Pathway, which focuses on developing and implementing new health technologies across NHS Scotland. The programme recently committed £6 million to a project helping people with type 2 Diabetes, stroke patients and babies born with a rare genetic condition. In the end, Prof McInnes said he and his colleagues are making a call to find collaborative solutions to a common problem and preserve what he called 'fabulous careers.' 'Clinical academics enrich and embellish the quality of clinical care, and they do that by being part of that community. 'There is very good evidence that just being in a clinical trial leads to better long-term outcomes for most chronic conditions. Even if you just get a placebo, you become a beneficiary of an ecosystem that seeks the best option, not the most convenient option. 'Being a clinical academic is an incredibly enriching profession, and part of our concern is that the focus on funding and crisis in the NHS obscures the fantastically brilliant career that is available.' Health Secretary Neil Gray said clinical research is "vital" for both the NHS and the economy. 'The need and case for this plan and its actions is timely – in recent years, the sector has suffered from the impact of Brexit and from UK Government immigration policies which have stemmed the flow of international talent into research programmes. 'We continue to provide over £.1.1billion to universities each year, including over £368million for research and innovation. Our Chief Scientist Office also continues to provide various funding opportunities for clinical research, working closely with our academic community to deliver clinical trials, develop new research and fast-track new innovations and technologies which benefit Scottish patients. 'However, we recognise the challenges and opportunities highlighted in the recent MRC report and we will continue to collaborate closely with universities, the NHS and industry to maximise opportunities for clinical academics here in Scotland.'
