Princess Anne takes subtle dig at Princes William and Harry

Princess Anne seems to take a veiled dig at her nephews, Princes William and Harry in a new interview. The Princess Royal, who turns 70 this August spoke with Vanity Fair and described herself as a “fuddy-duddy” when it comes to charitable work, in comparison to the younger royals who she thinks might want to …

Princess Anne seems to take a veiled dig at her nephews, Princes William and Harry in a new interview.

The Princess Royal, who turns 70 this August spoke with Vanity Fair and described herself as a “fuddy-duddy” when it comes to charitable work, in comparison to the younger royals who she thinks might want to “go back to basics” when it comes to philanthropy.

The interview was conducted before Harry and Meghan exited the royal family and announced the establishment of their own private foundation named Archewell after their son Archie.

Harry — especially while still a working member of the royal family — was open about his struggles with mental health while touting the mental health charity Heads Together that he co-founded with William and Kate. In a frank 2017 podcast interview, he admitted he was close to having total breakdowns on “numerous occasions” due to not dealing with the death of his mother, Diana, in 1997.

Anne admits that perhaps her nephews are not interested in following her lead.

“I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past and it’s often true, isn’t it?” Anne says.

“You don’t necessarily look at the previous generation and say, ‘Oh, you did that?’ Or, ‘You went there?’ Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh let’s do it a new way.’”

The only daughter of Queen Elizabeth explained that she spent a decade as a patron of Save the Children before speaking publicly on behalf of the charity.

“And I’m already at the stage, ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics,” she says.

Anne has often been described as the royal family’s most industrious member. She is the patron of over 200 charities and carried out over 500 separate royal engagements last year.

Twice married, she’s the mother of Peter and Zara Phillips who have no royal titles.

“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” she says. “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”

The Princess is also famous for recycling outfits which she cheekily ascribed to being “quite mean.”

“I still try and buy materials and have them made up because I just think that’s more fun,” she adds.

And while the unfussy royal would like her upcoming milestone birthday to be celebrated with the minimum of fuss she doubts it.

“Well, it would be nice if it were just another year passed,” she says, “but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”