Princess Anne reportedly enforced two strict rules that her children were made to follow whenever they appeared on royal balcony, her son revealed.
Princess Anne, 74, ensured that Zara Tindall and her brother Peter Phillips were always on their best behaviour whenever they stepped onto the royal balcony at Buckingham Palace.
© Getty ImagesWhether it was to celebrate the late Queen's birthday, a family wedding or another official event, according to Peter Phillips, his mother had two specific rules for her two children to follow.
Speaking to an ITV documentary celebrating the Princess Royal's 70th birthday in 2020, Peter, 47, said: "You then get a clip round the ear and say 'right, behave yourself, you know, we're going out on the balcony. Don't pick your nose and you know, don't yawn."
It's reported that Anne was well-known as the disciplinary enforcer of the royal balcony. In fact, in 1987, she can be seen attempting to calm a rambunctious four-year-old Prince William during an RAF flypast.
Princess Anne, who is about to celebrate her milestone 75th birthday, is often hailed the hardest-working royal as well as the most down-to-earth royal.
In a 2020 interview with Vanity Fair to mark her 70th birthday, the Princess Royal mused on her role of protecting tradition and the basics within the royal family. During the interview, she described herself as "the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back saying, 'Don't forget the basics.' "
"I don't think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past and it's often true, isn't it? You don't necessarily look at the previous generation and say, ‘Oh, you did that?' Or 'You went there?'
© Getty Images"Nowadays, they're much more looking for, 'Oh let's do it a new way.' And I'm already at the stage, 'Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We've been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics.' "
The Princess also has stringent rules about who she allows to accompany her during official outings. In the 1981 documentary, Princess Anne: Her Working Life, Anne asserted that it's crucial that royals are "nice and bright and cheerful" when meeting well-wishers on their travels across the UK and abroad.
© GettyThe candid royal admitted: "On official engagements, what you require is a companion. It's no good to me if then, you know, you get somebody turning up in the morning looking like death and furious…
"And you know, ratty about life and non-communicative, and when they go out on a trip, they're standing in a corner looking glum and bored. I mean that's no help at all to anyone, least of all to the people at the other end, never mind to me."
She went on to say that establishing the correct demeanor for regular public engagements doesn't "come that easily", but that you must be "nice and bright and cheerful, [even if you may not necessarily] feel like it".
