Princess Anne Has Likely Been “Loathing Being the Center of Attention” This Week Following a Concussion and Subsequent Hospital Stay

The hardest working member of the royal family is back home now and recuperating, Buckingham Palace confirms.

Princess Anne
(Image credit: Getty)

Following a five night stay in hospital as a result of an incident at her home, Gatcombe Park, on Sunday night, Princess Anne has been discharged from Southmead Hospital in Bristol and is home continuing her recuperation, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace today.

The update comes after the Palace shared earlier in the week that the Princess Royal had sustained “minor injuries and concussion” following a “working hypothesis” that her injury “involved hard impact from a horse.” The Palace also shared that Anne “is expected to make a full and swift recovery.” 

royal hat princess anne

The Princess Royal is now home at Gatcombe Park following a rather frightening incident on Sunday night involving a horse.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

In addition to the Palace’s statement, Anne’s husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, added “I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the team at Southmead Hospital for their care, expertise, and kindness during my wife’s short stay,” he said, per People. This comes after comments from Laurence earlier in the week to well-wishers, telling them “We are both deeply touched by all the kind messages we have received from so many people near and far,” he said. “It means a great deal.”

He also, per The Daily Beast, said at one point this week that his wife of 22 years was “doing fine—slow but sure” and that he’d brought her “a few little treats from home.” 

Princess Anne

Princess Anne and her husband of 22 years, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence; he has been by her side all week in hospital.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Princess Anne

If Anne is behind the scenes, Timothy, seen here with her at the Order of the Garter service last week, is even more so.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

On June 25, The Telegraph reported that Anne suffered memory loss from the incident, thought to be temporary. Anne—the only sister of King Charles and only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip—has long been considered the hardest working member of the royal family, based on the number of royal engagements she undertakes each year, as recorded in the Court Circular. According to People, in 2023, Anne undertook a staggering 457 engagements—more than one per day.

“She just gets on with it, often carrying out multiple engagements in one day,” Queen Elizabeth’s former press spokesman Dickie Arbiter previously told The Telegraph about Anne’s dedication to duty. According to People—in verbiage we’ve heard time and time again when it comes to the royal family this year—the Princess Royal “will only return to public duties once her medical team says it’s safe to do so.” 

Princess Anne in a tiara

Anne missed the Japanese state banquet and a royal tour of Canada this week, which she no doubt hated to do.

(Image credit: Getty)

Princess Anne

Anne, who is 73, has taken many a fall from a horse, as she is a longtime and passionate horsewoman.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Known not just for her work ethic but her no nonsense approach to life, Anne is a sturdy backbone of the royal family—dependable, loyal, and often eschewing the spotlight and the drama that often comes with it. “You can just imagine Anne absolutely loathing being the center of attention,” The Sunday Times’ royal editor Roya Nikkhah said on her podcast, “The Royals with Roya and Kate,” per The Mirror. “She’ll have really disliked the fact that, while her brother was hosting a state visit—a very high profile state visit—Anne was the main news of the day, because she loathes being center of attention.”

Nikkhah’s co-host Kate Mansey, who is royal editor for The Times, added “And she would have wanted to be there to represent the family.” Indeed, Anne was due to attend the June 25 state banquet, and was also scheduled to go on tour to Canada this week—and, following her injury, she, of course, had to cancel her appearance at both. 

Princess Anne

The Princess Royal on horseback at Trooping the Colour just under two weeks ago.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Anne is a passionate equestrian and even competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics representing Team Great Britain. She has also previously been injured on horseback, including at the Games itself, when her horse Goodwill missed a jump—“but she bravely completed the competition,” The Mirror writes.

“She will definitely, I think, fingers crossed, when she comes out of hospital, I think she will be around horses very soon,” Nikkhah said.

Princess Anne

Gatcombe Park

(Image credit: Getty Images)

For now, though, Anne is recuperating at Gatcombe Park, her home in Gloucestershire that was a wedding present from her mother, Her late Majesty, when Anne married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973. They subsequently divorced in 1992, and share two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall.

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Rachel Burchfield
Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.