The royals may be a musical family on the whole, but Princess Anne politely declined the chance to learn how to rap at an investiture ceremony on Thursday. The Princess Royal, 75, awarded teacher Bhishma Asare with an MBE at St James's Palace in London for his services to education and mental health awareness.
Mr Asare, who is an English teacher at the Royal Russell School in Croydon and has been a long-time rapper, said: "I was explaining the process and saying that we get children to write about a specific emotion, to explicitly mention that emotion so they can decipher those feelings.
"Then I said to her ‘Maybe I could teach you to rap? She said she used to sing and that is about it." He added: "She kind of declined and said her time is up."
Mr Asare, who formed Rap Therapy as a way to teach young people to be creative and positively express themselves through rap, said it is a powerful tool to help people communicate and express themselves.
Royal musical talents
Princess Anne is known for being a very sporty royal, and is in particular renowned for her passion for horse riding, even becoming the first member of the royal family to have competed in the Olympics. She also won a gold medal at the European Eventing Championships in 1971 and two silvers in 1975. However, she is less known for her musical ability, and Anne, who is King Charles's sister, found herself in a similar situation at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle in 2024 when she met organist and conductor Anna Lapwood.
Ms Lapwood, a director of music at Pembroke College in Cambridge, asked the princess if she had ever played the organ and encouraged her to give it a go. But Anne reportedly gave a similar response, telling her: "No, I haven't, I think it's a bit late." Ms Lapwood encouraged her further, saying: "Oh, I think you can, I think you could do it, you should do it."
It seems that the Princess of Wales and her daughter, Princess Charlotte, ten, are the musical ones in the family. Most recently, Charlotte joined her mother for a piano duet during a special performance recorded at Windsor Castle and featured on Kate's Together At Christmas carol service. Wearing a collared knit, plaid skirt and a gold bow in her hair, the duo one-handedly performed a piece called Holm Sound.
Kate, who herself gained grade three piano and grade five theory at school, revealed back in 2023 that Charlotte was taking piano lessons. Meanwhile, son Prince George is said to play the guitar, while Louis, seven, is learning how to play drums.
They're not the only royals to have had a go at playing an instrument. King Charles himself has long been a supporter of the musical arts and even learned to play the cello when he was younger. His mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, learned to play the piano aged 11, with her sister, Princess Margaret.
The hardest-working royals
Princess Anne is often regarded as the "hardest working" British royal, and is often seen as King Charles's right-hand woman, especially in his "slimmed down" monarchy. However, in December, Charles himself was crowned the hardest-working royal of the year in 2025, clocking up a total of 532 engagements across the 12 months, 50 more than his sister.
Anne took second place with 478 engagements, while the Duke of Edinburgh, 61, was third with 313, and his wife, the Duchess of Edinburgh, 60, was in fourth with 235. 2025 was a very exciting year for the royal family, featuring multiple tours abroad - with Anne visiting South Africa and Ukraine, and Prince Edward and Sophie going to Japan. Meanwhile, Queen Camilla, 78, was the fifth hardest-working royal with 228 engagements, while the late Queen's cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, came sixth.