This Is Why Princess Anne Won’t Shake Hands With Members Of The Public
Princess Anne is known to be one of the hardest-working members of the royal family, travelling up and down the country to take part in official engagements... but while she's statistically the family member you're most likely to meet at some point, don't be expecting a handshake from Anne.
Despite the fact that the Queen herself happily shakes hands with members of the public when she goes on "walkabouts" (royal-speak for greeting strangers at events), Princess Anne has no intention of doing the same.
In upcoming documentary Queen of the World, Queen Elizabeth's only daughter admitted that she's just sticking to the family's more traditional protocol. "We never shook hands," she said in the documentary, referring to the rule the family followed before the Queen relaxed it in the 1970s.
She continued: "The theory was that you couldn’t shake hands with everybody, so don’t start. So I kind of stick with that, but I noticed others don’t.
“It's not for me to say that it's wrong, but I think the initial concept was that it was patently absurd to start shaking hands. And it seems to be that it's become a shaking hands exercise rather than a walkabout if you see what I mean."
But the expectation of physical contact isn't Princess Anne's main bugbear when it comes to meeting the public - technology is. "Phones are bad enough, but the iPads-you can’t even see their heads," she explained. "No idea who you’re talking to. I either don’t bother or just say, 'Look, if you want to ask…I suggest you put that down.' It is weird."
"People don’t believe they’ve experienced the event unless they’ve taken a photograph."
Wow. Princess Anne serving up life lessons to us all.
Also in the documentary, we'll see Meghan Markle revisiting her wedding dress and revealing where she hid her “something blue” on the day, while Prince Harry reveals that he still gets nervous when greeting Queen Elizabeth.
At least she'll shake your hand though, Harry.
Queen of the World will air on Tuesday 25 September at 9.15pm on ITV.
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