At the age of 76, the Princess Royal has entered a new chapter in her home life. She recently welcomed into her close-knit family a new daughter-in-law, Harriet Phillips, and a new step-granddaughter, Georgina, and is surrounded by five other grandchildren at Gatcombe Park, the estate in Gloucestershire where she lives with her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
She is thought to have celebrated her birthday on 15 August in typically understated style. Last year, she marked her 75th by embarking on a sailing trip with Tim around the Scottish coast. Yet her passion for the hobby is one she indulges only a few times a year.
Long after most people her age have retired, Princess Anne maintains an extraordinary workload, travelling the world on behalf of King and country – with more overseas visits still to come this year, HELLO! understands.
In the midst of her hectic schedule, she celebrated her son Peter's wedding to Harriet, an NHS paediatric nurse specialist, hosting their reception at her breathtaking 700-acre estate in June.
Princess Anne an 'amazing mother and grandmother'
She is extremely close to her children, Peter, and Zara Tindall, and their families. The siblings still live a stone's throw from her, within Gatcombe Park, so she is able to spend plenty of time with her grandchildren: Savannah and Isla Phillips, as well as Mia, Lena and Lucas Tindall.
She has welcomed Savannah and Isla's new stepsister, Georgina, "with open arms", according to a well-placed source, who adds: "She is an amazing mother and grandmother and has a natural talent for putting people at ease, much like her mother, the late Queen."
© Getty ImagesThe Princess, who is famously only beaten to the title of hardest-working royal each year by her brother the King, sees her children and grandchildren as often as she can in her rare moments of downtime. Gatcombe may be a grand country house, but it is a world away from Buckingham Palace. Behind its pillared portico is a lived-in family home – a place where dogs, wellies, framed photos and mementos abound.
"Gatcombe is her bolthole, where she is not the Princess Royal – she is Anne," says Ailsa Anderson, a former communications secretary to Queen Elizabeth II. "It's a lot less formal; she has Zara and Mike still living on the estate, and Peter and Harriet nearby.
"She's a pragmatist, a divorcee herself – and I think, like every parent, she just wants to see her children happy. She adores them and it's touching to see her with her grandchildren at horse trials, showing them things and looking relaxed in her jeans."
© Getty ImagesThe royal author Robert Hardman agrees. "Gatcombe is her happy place; she's fundamentally a country person," he says. Her relationship with her children and grandchildren is "very no-nonsense", he adds. "It's very normal; there isn't any standing on ceremony, and she's the only one with a title.
"She's a very good grandmother. She's hands-on, but like all grandchildren, I think they can get away with things. She dotes on them."
Queen of official engagements
Clearly, Anne's children and grandchildren are enormously important to her, and the grounding provided by her home life helps to power her public duties. She tries to ride daily, when her schedule allows, but well into her eighth decade, she spends a remarkable amount of time on the road doing a job that would exhaust many young people.
She carried out an impressive 478 engagements in 2025 and has shown no sign of slowing down this year, notching up more than 290 by mid-August.
She began her travels in Italy in February, cheering on Team GB at the Winter Olympics in her trademark wraparound sunglasses and a team jacket. In May, she spent three days in Greece, visiting Athens and Crete to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, before heading to France in July to mark the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. In the same month, she jetted off to South Korea and Thailand with Tim, brushing off jet lag to carry out 26 engagements in five days.
© PA Images via Getty ImagesAccompanied by only a small entourage, including a dresser to assist with the many changes of outfit that were required, she proved once again what an asset she is to the Foreign Office. Her decision to carry a traditional Yan Lipao basketry handbag, given to her by the Sustainable Arts and Crafts Institute of Thailand, went down a storm in Bangkok. It was a typically considerate gesture by the Princess, who is famed for her support of the textiles industry, as well as being an icon of sustainable fashion in her own right.
But it also showed her deep understanding of soft power, honed over decades of official travel on behalf of the government – and there is little prospect of her passport being put away, with a couple more trips in the works for this year.
"She does not pause for breath," Ailsa says. "Think about how many other 76-year-olds are putting their feet up, watching TV, and she just carries on. It's all about duty. She inherited that sense of duty and service from both of her parents. I don't think the word 'retirement' is in her vocabulary."
"It's often said that she's her father's daughter – the directness, the no-nonsense approach, the love of the sea," says Robert, the author of the biography Elizabeth II. "She is the family sailor now that he's gone, and she loves all that. But what several of the family have pointed out to me is actually the similarity with her mother.
"That attention to detail, great memory, sense of humour, low ego, capacity to get on with it… of course, there's the sense of duty, but also the sense of humour."
Anne's wit was on display in February, when she dodged an on-camera hug from the Scotland rugby player Sione Tuipulotu at a match in Edinburgh. She later embraced him in the dressing room after a match against Ireland in March, leading Sione to conclude: "I think she's an icon."
© Getty ImagesIndeed, those who know her say that the Princess has a "wicked" sense of fun, as well as a desire to seek out the less glamorous, unsung heroes around her. At garden parties, she avoids the central lanes of guests selected to meet members of the royal family and wanders around the sides, popping up to meet people who aren't expecting it. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she made a point of going to visit refuse collectors in Cambridgeshire to highlight their crucial role in keeping the country running.
"It's a recurring theme," Robert says. "She will often take on the less starry but equally important organisations."
"She's highly intelligent, very well briefed and takes an interest in topics that others might not consider worthwhile, but which matter a lot to people," adds a royal insider.
Princess Anne's horse-related accident
Anne's dedication to duty is all the more remarkable considering that she suffered a serious horse-related accident in the summer of 2024 and spent five days in hospital being treated for concussion. The experience might have persuaded anyone else that it was time to take things more slowly, but the Princess drew a different conclusion.
She returned to work less than three weeks later, visiting the Riding for the Disabled Association with just a hint of bruising still visible around her eyes, partly concealed by a carefully angled fedora.
Eco-fashion and her timeless style
Resilience is a word that also applies to the Princess's wardrobe, which is carefully organised by Veronica Cain, her live-in dresser of more than 30 years. Veronica's job is made easier by the fact that Anne's dress size has not changed in that time, and she is still able to fit into outfits and military uniforms made for her decades ago.
At a state banquet for the President of Nigeria in March, she chose a white gown that she was first seen wearing as an 18-year-old in 1969. At Peter's wedding in June, she finished her outfit with the same yellow hat she wore for Zara's christening in 1981. And at Royal Ascot this year, she selected a 25-year-old pale pink skirt suit first seen at the race meeting in 2001.
© Tim Graham Photo Library via Get"Princess Anne always looks incredible, and she provides style inspiration that we can all draw on," says HELLO!'s Head of Fashion, Becky Donaldson. "She has long shown that dressing well doesn't require constantly buying something new, and she was a champion of the wear-it-again philosophy long before it became fashionable."
Of the white gown that Anne first wore as a teenager, Becky says: "It demonstrated her commitment to a more sustainable approach to fashion, and the fact that she could still fit into it nearly six decades later was quite something."
The Princess returns to work at the end of August and has a packed schedule this autumn.
With a new daughter-in-law and step-granddaughter to welcome into the fold, and her family close by, there is plenty to draw her home. But for all the joy she takes from her growing family, there are still plenty of people to meet and places to go.
At 76, Anne shows every sign of carrying on exactly as she always has.
