A Head Injury Didn't Stop Princess Anne From Being the Hardest Working Royal for the Fourth Straight Year

The late Queen Elizabeth's only daughter carried out 217 royal engagements in 2024.

Princess Anne, Princess Royal speaks with guests during a reception for medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games at Buckingham Palace on November 7, 2024 in London, England.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Princess Anne has done it again.

According to a new study, the late Queen Elizabeth's only daughter attended an astounding 217 royal engagements in 2024 alone, the most of any working royal, The Daily Express reports.

This makes Princess Anne the hardest working royal family member for the fourth straight year, and despite her sustaining a significant head injury over the summer.

In June, King Charles' sister was hospitalized after suffering “minor injuries and a concussion” at her home, Gatcombe Park, the Tatlerreported at the time. As a result of her injuries, Princess Anne also suffered short-term memory loss.

"All we understand is that she cannot remember the incident,” royal author Katie Nicholl told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “Obviously, she has been asked about what happened, and she simply can’t remember, which suggests that she probably blacked out at the time of the event.”

Nicholl added that “there is no suggestion that this memory loss is anything more than immediately around what happened.”

Princess Anne, Princess Royal speaks with guests during a reception for medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games at Buckingham Palace on November 7, 2024 in London, England.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Princess Anne made a full recovery following her accident, and continued to show up for the royal family, who was forced to navigate a difficult year after both King Charles and Princess Kate were diagnosed with undisclosed types of cancer.

“I think we have to hope that this is nothing too serious for Princess Anne,” Nicholl continued in the same interview.

“We understand that she will be discharged later on this week and hopefully will be back on a horse again in the not too distant future, but this has felt like a very difficult time for the royal family and I think, in all of this, it highlights that, yes, they are the royal family—the King, the Queen, the head of state—but, also, they are just normal people. The cancer [of King Charles, the Princess of Wales, and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York] has been a great leveler. And, as every family knows, there will be accidents. It does just feel that a lot has come, all in one go.”

Queen Camilla holding a degree and Princess Anne wearing university robes

Queen Camilla and Princess Anne

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Recently, Princess Anne presented her sister-in-law, Queen Camilla, with an honorary doctorate degree in literature from the University of London.

The degree honored the queen's long history of supporting literary-based charities, as well as her work as patron of numerous literacy organizations, including the National Literacy Trust, First Story, Coram Beanstalk and BookTrust. Per Buckingham Palace, the royal "has visited schools and libraries, as well as workplaces and prisons, to see the work of adult literacy schemes."

Princess Anne is such a hard-working member of the royal family, that during the celebratory event she even stopped her sister-in-law from breaking royal protocol.

According to a report from the New York Post, while Queen Camilla and Princess Anne were escorted to the Senate house, where the ceremony took place, the queen "invited" her sister-in-law to "enter the room first," which would have broken "the first step of the royal protocol."

Aware of the rules, Princess Anne reportedly “smiled and politely refused” to enter the room first.

Danielle Campoamor
Weekend Editor

Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.

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