Queen Elizabeth II’s daughter, Princess Anne, has broken her silence on the coronation controversy which saw Prince Harry blocked from view during the official broadcast of the historic ceremony by her large feathered hat.
Anne performed a senior role during the coronation as King Charles’ “Gold Stick in Waiting,” a form of ceremonial bodyguard which saw her appear in military uniform riding behind the king’s gold coach for the journey to and from Buckingham Palace.
The princess also watched the ceremony, seated with other members of the royal family, next to her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, directly in-front of her nephew, Prince Harry.
Anne’s uniform was worn under her robes of the Order of the Thistle, and included a large bicorn hat with red feathered plume. In broadcast footage, the hat blocked Harry from view, with some spectators suggesting online that this was staged deliberately as punishment for the prince’s bombshell Netflix documentary and memoir which was critical of King Charles and the monarchy.
Now, in the new book Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story written by royal author Robert Hardman, the princess’ reaction to her headwear for the ceremony has been shared for the first time.
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In an extract serialized by the Daily Mail in Britain ahead of the book’s release on Thursday, Hardman describes the suggestion Harry’s hat blocking was pre-arranged as “nonsense.”
“At the Coronation itself, Prince Harry was seated in the third row of the royal section, immediately behind Princess Anne, who was wearing a striking red-plumed bicorn hat that remained on her head throughout,” he wrote. “Social media snipers instantly concluded that Harry had been deliberately placed behind his aunt’s tall hat to obscure his view.
“This is nonsense. Not only do the Lord Chamberlain’s Office not think like that, but the Princess Royal had only switched to that seat after her request for a speedy exit.”
Citing Anne herself, Hardman writes that the princess recalled after the ceremony that: “‘The hat was an interesting question.’
“‘I said: ‘Are you sure you want me to keep the hat on? Because it’s quite a decent-sized hat.’ And the answer was yes. There you go. Not my choice.'”
Anne was spotted after her arrival at Westminster Abbey chatting with Harry before the ceremony, she was also referenced in the prince’s January 2023 memoir, Spare.
The princess greeted him at Balmoral Castle in Scotland following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.
“I hurried into the foyer. Aunt Anne was there to greet me. I hugged her,” Harry wrote of his arrival at the castle in the hours after his grandmother’s death.
“She led me upstairs, to Granny’s bedroom. I braced myself, went in.”
The princess did not publicly comment on Harry’s book or its contents, in line with a blanket “no comment” position adopted by King Charles and Buckingham Palace.
Hardman’s new book, focused on Charles’ first year as sovereign, contains a number of insights about the king and his two sons, including their interactions at the time of the queen’s death.
Newsweek approached representatives of Prince Harry via email for comment.
Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story is due to be published on January 18 by Macmillan.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.