The Princess Royal famously kept her relationship with Mark Phillips a secret and wanted to make sure she kept the timing of her engagement announcement in her own hands. To do this, she did not tell the Palace press officer or even her own mother and monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, about her plans. Robin Ludlow, who was the Queen’s press secretary in 1972 and 1973, explained how he knows this in the 2002 Channel 4 documentary ‘The Real Princess Anne’.

He said: “I set about asking firstly the princess if she was going to get engaged and she said she wasn’t.

“And when I asked the Queen whether she thought the princess would get engaged, she said she wished she knew.

“So whenever the press asked me what was going on, I was able to say to them, as far as I was concerned, very truthfully, that she wasn’t going to get engaged.”

This infuriated the press, who felt like they had been lied to.

It soured Anne’s already troubled relationship with the media, with one journalist claiming her actions made them “go for her”.

Harry Arnold, who was a royal reporter for The Sun at the time, said: “The romance was denied on a daily basis by Buckingham Palace.

“And I remember one particular press officer saying ‘No, Princess Anne is not getting engaged today, she’s not getting engaged tomorrow and she’s not getting engaged next week either.’

“And two days later the engagement was announced!

“And that makes the press pretty cross because they’re simply being lied to, and it makes them, in effect, go for her.”

The press had previously accused Anne of being bad-tempered and sulky.

She famously told reporters to “naff off” when they were taking pictures of her during an equestrian competition.

She later told Michael Parkinson on ‘Parkinson in Australia’ that she did not regret her language, because the photographers had been “asking for it”.

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Anne’s engagement was to Army officer Mark Phillips, who was also a competitive horse-rider.

They reportedly met at a party for horse enthusiasts in 1968 and started dating in secret.

Anne even used to drive around with Mark in her horse box, so no one would see them together.

They announced their engagement on May 29, 1973.

On November 14 the same year, they got married at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that was beamed around the world and watched by an estimated 100 million people

They had two children together, Peter and Zara, and were married for 18 years, but separated in 1989 and divorced in 1992.

They were both romantically linked to other people in the final years of their marriage and Anne remarried just a few months after the divorce was finalised.

She is now married to Timothy Laurence, a former Royal Navy officer.

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