In news that will come as a surprise to no one, Princess Anne has been named the “hardest working” member of the British Royal family for 2024.
The title has been bestowed upon the Princess Royal by the Sunday Telegraph, which analysed all of the public engagements and official meetings working members of The Royal Family have undertaken in the last 12 months.
In 2024, the 74-year-old has carried out 217 engagements (and counting), a rise of 2.4% compared to 2023 where she carried out an impressive 457 official engagements, 32 more than her brother King Charles who only undertook 425.
This was despite canceling several engagements during the British summer after being hospitalised for a head injury she obtained after being kicked by a horse at her home in Gatcombe Park.
Given Anne stepped up frequently on behalf of her brother, King Charles, and niece-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales due to their cancer diagnoses, it is easy to understand why she has earned the title for the fourth consecutive year.
The monarch did however still finish second in the rankings and has undertaken 186 engagements so far in 2024, a 5.6% increase from 2023. Notably, October was his busiest month due to his royal tour of Australia and Samoa with 26 engagements.
November was also the Princess Royal’s busiest month at 28 – that’s nearly one every day!
Curiously, despite placing third at 233 engagements in 2023, Queen Camilla was ousted from that position by Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester who participated in 126 royal engagements, marking an 11.5% increase from 2023.
Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh remained in fourth place with 124 engagements (a drop from 297 in 2023) while his wife Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh ranked fifth with 108.
After taking off some time to care for her ailing husband, Queen Camilla only attended 95 royal engagements this year, with Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester at 72, and Prince William and eighth place with just 71 engagements.
Traditionally the Prince and Princess of Wales have ranked much higher, but the royal couple have taken some well-deserved time out of the public eye this year as Catherine continues to recover from cancer.
Royal Commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has previously described Anne as “invaluable” to the monarchy when unpacking the data with the Sunday Telegraph.
“Anne is one of the best advertisements for The Royal Family because she is hardworking, she is dedicated and she is popular because people look at the way she handles things and they like it.”
“The public see[s] Anne as someone who is grounded, I think the institution does need her very much.”
“[Although] it’s a problem that only 4 working royals are under 70,” he also later shared to his X (formerly known as Twitter) account.
See the full list of working royals here.
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