The man who tried to kidnap Princess Anne at gunpoint nearly 50 years ago has revealed the royal's real reaction amid his claims that the ordeal was a 'hoax' and that he is 'innocent'.
Ian Ball, who was released from a psychiatric hospital in 2019, is professing his innocence despite his plot to kidnap Princess Anne in 1974, according to a new interview with the Daily Mail.
Ian, now 77, was 26 when he ambushed the Princess Royal on The Mall in March 1974. The man then shot four men who attempted to come to the Princess' aid.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Ian said: "I'm an innocent, sane man because I had good reason to believe the gunpowder had been taken out of the bullets and another girl had been substituted for Princess Anne."
Previously, Ian had stated that he was hoping to get a £2m ransom from the Queen, but now says the kidnapping was a 'hoax' in order to garner publicity for his memoir.
"The whole idea of performing the hoax was to get the publicity so I could write my autobiography, and I expected to get £10,000 in royalties."
Ian added that the Princess wasn't 'bothered' during the ordeal, saying: "I didn't scare her. I was more scared than she was."
Anne's foiled kidnapping plot
Anne, then 23, had been in her limousine, along with her husband Captain Phillips after attending a charity event when Ian, who had been tailing the car, skidded in front and forced it to stop.
The man then held the passengers at gun point and, in an attempt to wrangle Anne out of her limousine, shot her bodyguard, chauffeur, a police officer, and a journalist.
When he demanded that the Princess go with him, she was said to have uttered her famous, stoic line: "Not bloody likely." Ian was only subdued thanks to a passing retired heavyweight boxer, Ronnie Russell, who was able to wrestle him to the ground, bringing the terrifying ordeal to an end.
What happened to Anne's kidnapper?
After being arrested, Ian pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, attempted kidnap and wounding at the Old Bailey. He was also detained without time limit under the Mental Health Act, spending 45 years in Broadmoor and Rampton psychiatric hospitals but was released in 2019.
In 2023, Ian also released an autobiography titled To Kidnap a Princess, which is described as recounting the "dramatic and thrilling" attempted kidnapping of Anne.
"The story continues in an equally dramatic and exciting vein and details the perpetrator's (author's) eventful and turbulent 45 year stay in Rampton and Broadmoor," the book's description says.
What has Princess Anne said about the attempted kidnapping?
Anne, now 74, rarely speaks about the ordeal. But in the ITV documentary Anne: The Princess Royal at 70, she shared her thoughts on the terrifying experience.
She said: "What is interesting is what you remember and how you remember it, because although I thought I remembered everything that happened I would never have been able to swear I could remember in the right order. Because they were like photos, individual snapshots. Very clearly."
She added: "Strangely, I had thought it before that, 'what would you do if...'"
Prince Philip also once spoke to his daughter's stoic disposition throughout the ordeal, saying: "If the man had succeeded in abducting Anne, she would have given him a hell of a time while in captivity."