Princess Anne’s classy handling of the situation when a student attempted to embarrass her with a difficult question!
Princess Anne, who is known for her straight talking and quick wit, once fended off an awkward question from a student who tried to ask about the Royal Family's home
Princess Anne took no nonsense when it came to answering a question about her living arrangements.
The Princess Royal has been praised for being a “class act” in a resurfaced clip online that shows her being quizzed by a student during a visit to the Soviet Union in 1990. Anne, then 40, was visiting Moscow when she was asked a question about Buckingham Palace – and she responded with a straight-up answer and smiled.
The student asked Anne: “How does it feel having Buckingham Palace as your private property?” To which the Princess responded a blunt statement: “Well, I don’t know because it isn’t.”
After the rest of the class laughed, Anne went on to explain: “No, it’s a state-owned establishment. I wasn’t actually born there. I have my office there and the Queen lives there but it’s not really private property.” Buckingham Palace is occupied by the Sovereign and held in trust by Crown Estates for future generations.
The clip, which is currently circulating on TikTok, has been praised by royal fans with Anne being dubbed “intelligent, strong and extremely witty” by one viewer. Another said: “Love the Princess Royal! She’s humble and a class act.”
A third commented: “She’s wonderful! Such a true treasure!” while a fourth said: “He thought he was giving an ‘ouch’ moment but she flattened his tyres.” Many also noted how Anne went to say ‘my mother’ instead of ‘the Queen’ but stopped herself.
Anne, dubbed The Firm’s hardest-working royal, is famed for her witty responses, perhaps most famously showcased during a failed kidnapping attempt in 1974. A man named Ian Ball shot at Anne’s Rolls-Royce as she and her then husband, Captain Mark Phillips, were returning to Buckin gham Palace from a reception.
Princess Anne pictured in 1980
Ball, who had hoped for a ransom of millions of dollars, commanded Anne to get out of the car during the tussle. “Not bloody likely” was her response. In a 1980 interview with British talk show host Michael Parkinson, Anne spoke about how she refused to move, even as Ball grabbed her arm and tackled her to the floor of the car.
“We had a sort of discussion about where or where not we were going to go,” she revealed, adding that she saw no point in being rude to her assailant during the attack, which she thinks lasted at least 10 minutes. “I was scrupulously polite because I thought it was silly to be too rude at that stage,” she said.
The Princess said it was the moment when Ball ripped her dress that her attitude changed for the worse. “The back of my dress split and that was his most dangerous moment,” she quipped. “I lost my rag at that stage.” Another witness who was walking past punched Ball in the head twice, finally bringing the incident to an end.
The late Queen gave all of the four people who Ball shot a medal as a thank you for helping to save her daughter’s life. Ball later pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping.
