Princess Anne is one of the hardest working royals around — but she wasn’t given the honor of being Prince Harry’s godmother at his 1984 christening.
In turn, the 73-year-old opted to miss the holy event at the time.
But why did the Princess Royal decide to skip the momentous occasion?
It started when she asked her big brother King (then Prince) Charles to be a godparent for her first child, Peter Phillips, in 1977.
Charles, 74, obliged at the time but in 1982, when his first son and heir Prince William was set to be baptized, Anne was not picked to be godmother.
Royal author Robert Lacey penned in his book Battle of Brothers how Charles reportedly “did not return the compliment when it came to William.”
“According to [a] rumor, [Charles] had very much wanted to invite his sister, only to be blocked by his wife [the late Princess Diana].”
Lacey claimed that Anne was irritated by the Princess of Wales, especially whenever her name came up in conversation.
A palace source had told Lacey for his book that Anne often called Diana “The Dope” and how her sister-in-law seemed to get much of the limelight despite undertaking less royal engagements than her.
“Anne made her feelings obvious on the day. As the three-month old Prince Henry Charles Albert David, third in line to the British throne, was being baptized at Windsor in the presence of the Queen [Elizabeth], the Queen Mother, [Prince] Philip and the rest of the royal family, there were two conspicuous absentees,” the biographer penned.
He continued: “His aunt Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were out in the Gloucestershire countryside, 85 miles to the west, shooting rabbits.”
The “shooting party” had taken “precedence” for Anne and Mark over the christening.
The hunting event had been planned three months prior and Anne felt that it would be rude to un-invite her guests to her country home. However, their young kids Zara and Peter attended the ceremony.
Royal expert Jennie Bond told OK! Magazine earlier this year that despite Harry writing negative things about her family in his recent memoir “Spare,” Anne will always have a soft spot for her nephew.
“Princess Anne is a very straight-down-the-line and blunt sort of person,” Bond said. “She says what she thinks, she doesn’t pretend anything. She is probably like her late mother as Queen Elizabeth could always compartmentalize everything she was told.”
But Anne was “absolutely furious with Harry for upsetting her mother, his grandmother, so much in her last years.”
Bond concluded: “She is angry at the damage he’s done to the royal reputation because she works so hard.”
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