Princess Anne Just Made an Unexpected Royal Move After Reports of Charles’ ‘Terrible’ Health
Being a royal is living a life of privilege; that much is true. But that life also comes with basically no privacy. No matter what you do and when you do it, there is a high likelihood that it will be reported online, and people will have opinions about it. That’s exactly what happened with Princess Anne’s latest outing, and it wasn’t even a personal one!
The Princess Royal visited luxury underwear brand Edge o’ Beyond’s workshop in Caerphilly, South Wales, as part of her role as president of the U.K. Fashion and Textile Association. Yes, a lingerie store. Once there, she unveiled a plaque on one of the brand’s underwear displays. That’s a different photo op than we’re used to.
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Naomi De Haan, Edge o’ Beyond’s founder, told The Telegraph that Princess Anne was “very cool, very interested in everything,” adding that she “came across as very feminist.”
Employees of the workshop walked the princess through how they create the brand’s jewelry-adorned lingerie. The Princess Royal also engaged in discussions about how to make corsets without whalebone and the issues surrounding “censorship of the female body,” the outlet reported.
Later, the brand made an Instagram post celebrating their 11th anniversary, which featured the Princess alongside some of their lingerie. “We were so proud to welcome Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, President of the UK Fashion + Textile Association, to our South Wales Atelier last week, to mark our 11th anniversary, and to celebrate our commitment to reviving garment manufacturing in the UK,” the post read. “Her Royal Highness’s deep understanding of the fashion + textile industry + her genuine curiosity were inspiring for our whole team.”
Princess Anne making this particular stop shouldn’t be surprising, considering she’s widely seen as the hardest-working royal. And the numbers back her up. In 2024, the last full year, she outnumbered every other working royal when it came to royal engagements with 473. That’s more than King Charles, who came in second place with 372. A distant third was Prince Edward with 293.
The visit comes amid renewed concern for King Charles’ health. The King recently joked about his age during a visit to officially open the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Smethwick. The BBC reported that after a woman told King Charles she was “wearing out,” he responded: “That’s the terrible thing I’m discovering. Bits don’t work so well when you get past 70.”
It seems like a harmless joke, one everyone makes about their age, but when we tie it to recent reports that suggest the King’s cancer cannot be cured, then it takes a much different tone. Writer and associate editor of the Daily Telegraph, Camilla Tominey, recently said. “The talk now is that he may die ‘with’ cancer, but not ‘of’ cancer following a rigorous treatment program.”
These things don’t affect Princess Anne’s engagements, whether that includes lingerie stores or not, but it seems like, with the King still on the mend, we will continue to see her doing all kinds of public engagements for the foreseeable future.
