How Princess Anne Became ‘Furious’ At This Event

Princess Anne is known for her love of horses and success as an equestrian, but an unfortunate incident during an event in 1982 led to the Princess Royal becoming furious at the press who captured it.

According to the 2002 documentary “The Real Princess Anne,” a fall while riding at the Burghley Horse Show caused Queen Elizabeth’s daughter to have an unpleasant reaction.

“One particular incident at Burghley Horse Show when she came flying off, went right under, it was a really muddy lake,” photographer Jayne Fincher recalled in the film. “We were all click click clicking away, giggling our heads off.”

However, Princess Anne was not amused by the reaction, with Fincher revealing that “if looks could have killed, we would all have been dead instantly, because she was furious at doing it right in front of us.”

As it turned out, the fact that the press corps saw it may have been what led to Princess Anne eventually disliking photographers altogether.

“She didn’t like that one little bit, because it was always published huge in the paper,” former photographer Steve Wood said in the documentary. “I think this may have been the time when she learned to hate photographers.”

She later also expressed anger at the press when she experienced another fall from her horse that same year at the Badminton Horse Trials, infamously telling photographers to “naff off” afterward.

As it turned out, the Princess’ annoyances were more to do with the fact that the press tended to focus on who she was by her title as they covered her equestrian fails, not the fact that she was simply an equestrian.

“The fact that she is Princess Anne has made the interest in her far greater than in anybody else,” reporter James Whitaker said in the film. “I’m sorry, it’s tough, it just goes with the job. It’s the ‘naff off’ picture, when she lost it and told me to ‘naff off’ and that created a storm.”