The Princess Royal has cast aside the controversy surrounding her nephew the Duke of Sussex’s new book and carried on with her royal duties by visiting British soldiers serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force on Cyprus.
Princess Anne, 72, planned to meet members of the Royal Logistic Corps, the army unit which she serves as colonel-in-chief, to recognise their service as one of the UN’s longest-serving peacekeeping forces.
The peacekeepers invited Anne to visit and planned to lead her on a tour of a section of the UN-controlled buffer zone that separates the island nation’s breakaway Turkish Cypriot north from the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot south.
The visit came the day after Prince Harry’s explosive memoir Spare went on sale around the world.
Princess Anne shaking hands with Major General Ingrid Gjerde (R), Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus
Earlier on Wednesday, Anne met with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.
They discussed climate change-related issues, the energy crisis spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine and efforts to restart stalled talks to reunify Cyprus, a government statement said.
Mr Anastasiades gifted the princess a silver copy of a cup from the fourth century BC and a photo album of Cypriots who volunteered to fight with British forces during the Second World War. Anne reciprocated with a portrait of herself.
The princess was also scheduled to meet with soldiers and their families at Dhekelia Garrison, one of two military bases that the UK retained after Cyprus gained independence from British rule in 1960.
Princess Anne (pictured), 72, planned to meet members of the Royal Logistic Corps, the army unit which she serves as colonel-in-chief, to recognise their service as one of the UN’s longest-serving peacekeeping forces
The Princess Royal posing for a photo with Major General Ingrid Gjerde (R), Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, and an official during her visit to the UN Protected Area in Cyprus’ divided capital Nicosia
The princess will also lay a wreath at a cemetery in the buffer zone where many Commonwealth soldiers who died in conflicts including both world wars are buried.
Media access during her visit was limited to Anne’s brief meeting with Mr Anastasiades. She did not make any public remarks.
British High Commissioner to Cyprus Irfan Siddiq said in a statement that the visit was ‘an important opportunity to showcase the strength of the enduring links between our two countries’.
The Princess of Wales today also stepped out in public for the first time since Harry made a slew of claims about her fractious relationship with Meghan Markle.
The Duke of Sussex gave his first full account of the infamous bridesmaid dress fitting, claiming Princess Charlotte ‘cried when she tried it on at home’ and insisting the incident was driven by his sister-in-law Kate, who appeared irritated that it had taken Meghan a day to get back to her about the problem.
The royal meeting with UN peacekeepers during her visit to the UN Protected Area in Cyprus
Princess Anne being escorted by Major General Ingrid Gjerde (C-L), Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, during her visit to the UN Protected Area in Cyprus
The disagreement between the two women was, he claims, further exacerbated by Kate’s unwillingness to visit Meghan’s tailor at Kensington Palace and suggestions that they hold a party for the page boys when his bride-to-be was busy dealing with a row with her father, Thomas Markle.
Harry also used an interview with ITV journalist, and old friend, Tom Bradby to accuse Kate of ‘stereotyping’ Meghan because she was an American actress and is divorced and biracial, saying it prevented them from ‘welcoming her in’.
Asked what he meant, the duke said: ‘Well, American actress, divorced, biracial, there’s – there’s all different parts to that and what that can mean but if you are, like a lot of my family do, if you are reading the Press, the British tabloids, at the same time as living the life, then there is a tendency where you could actually end up living in the tabloid bubble rather than the actual reality.’
Meghan was previously married to American TV producer Trevor Engelson for three years from 2011 until 2014.
Before meeting Harry, Meghan starred in US legal drama series Suits in which she played paralegal-turned-lawyer Rachel Zane.
Bradby said that Harry saw his brother’s wife as ‘the sister you never had’, with the pair having known each other since soon after William and Kate started dating in 2003.
The pair are believed to have got on well, with Harry joining her and William on engagements before he met Meghan – although he told Bradby that while the events were ‘fun’, he sometimes felt ‘slightly awkward’ being the ‘third wheel’.
Harry also said the idea of himself, his wife and the Prince and Princess of Wales being the ‘fab four’ was ‘something the British Press created’ and it ‘creates competition’.
He told Bradby: ‘The idea of the four of us being together was always a hope for me.
‘Before it was Meghan, whoever it was going to be, I always hoped that the four of us would get on. But very quickly it became Meghan versus Kate.
‘And that, when it plays out so publicly, you can’t hide from that, right? Especially when within my family you have the newspapers laid out pretty much in every single palace and house that is around.’
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