Princess Anne: Zara Tindall’s career ‘no surprise’ says expert

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The Queen’s daughter is famous for being one of the hardest-working royals in terms of the number of engagements completed each year. Meanwhile, her daughter Zara has led a relatively normal life with her own career separate from the Royal Family. She was a successful equestrian, while her husband Mike Tindall was a top rugby player.

The Tindalls are having a light shone on their lives in a documentary airing tonight on Channel 5 entitled ‘Zara & Mike: No-Nonsense Royals’.

Zara once claimed she had asked her 70-year-old mother whether she would consider cutting down, but it was a “very short conversation”.

In an ITV documentary last year entitled ‘Anne: The Princess Royal at 70’, Zara and her brother Peter Phillips were asked whether they had tried to get their mother to slow down.

Zara joked: “I mean good luck!”

Then she admitted: “We would try and then it would be a very short conversation.”

Both Anne’s children expressed their amazement at how much their mother still does, with Zara claiming her brain is like a “sponge”.

She said: “It’s like a sponge. It’s unbelievable the information that is stored in her brain.

“It’s incredible. It’s quite annoying as well.

“Peter agreed: “It is quite annoying, yes.”

Both delivered their light-hearted compliment in a dry, deadpan manner.

Anne’s former private secretary, Captain Sir Nicholas Wright RN appeared to agree with their analysis, emphasising how Anne would read her daily briefs very carefully.

He said: “We had to send her programmes, her briefs, her speeches ‒ and God help me if there was something missing.

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“She would read with a really sharp eye.

“And I remember once ‒ I’ve never forgotten it ‒ she said, ‘Private secretary, what normally comes after 16?

And I knew then that page 17 of the brief was missing.”

According to Anne’s programme manager, she attends around 500 engagements each year.

Prince Charles and Princess Anne pay tribute to Prince Philip

Despite so many scheduled visits, openings, dinners and meetings, Anne still finds the time to read up on all the charities and organisations she visits, so she can have a meaningful conversation with the people there.

The Princess Royal explained: “The organisations have backstories that are quite useful to know.

“So that’s the length of time people have been involved, the impact of what it does etc.”

Anne’s lady-in-waiting, The Hon Madeleine Louloudis, noted how Anne manages to keep up her energy all day.

She described how the Princess Royal gives everyone she is meeting the same amount of attention, whether she meets them at the beginning of the day, when she is fresh, or whether it is towards the end of her duties that day.

Zara added that, when they all lived together at Gatcombe Park, Anne would arrive home after a long day of royal engagements and immediately go to do farm work.

She said: “She would come home from engagements and would be in exactly what she was wearing and her make-up on and stuff ‒ put her wellie boots and coat on and go to do her chickens and get her eggs.”

Both Anne and Zara generally rank well in terms of popularity with the general public and it is believed that Anne’s hard work and deviation and Zara’s down-to-earth character and relatability is what endears them to people.

Zara & Mike: No-Nonsense Royals’ is on Channel 5 tonight at 9pm.

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