Why is Gen Z SO obsessed with Princess Anne on TikTok?

She has long been applauded as the hardest working royal but now Princess Anne is being celebrated by a completely new generation – and for very different reasons.

Gen Z is obsessed with the Princess Royal – from celebrating her style in the 60s and 70s, to her dry sense of humour and the fact she told a man it was ‘not bloody likely’ he would be able to kidnap her, those on TikTok cannot get enough.

Following the death of her mother the Queen in September, montages of the Princess’s best outfits, clips from her previous interviews, and videos of her out and about during her royal visits soared.

The 72-year-old royal has almost a billion views under her name on the video sharing app.

This exceeds searches for much younger members of the royal family, such as the Kate the Princess of Wales, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

But why are those on TikTok so captivated the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s second child?

Her ‘iconic’ sense of style in the 1960s and 1970s 

Princess Anne’s style has been celebrated on TikTok, with many looking back to the outfits she wore in the 1960s and 1970s.

There are hundreds of videos on the app that bring together her best looks over the decades.

One person commented, ‘I just love Princess Anne’ with another adding ‘she is her own woman, she was always very fashionable’.

Snaps include the Princess wearing an array of bright colours and bold patterns.

Indeed, she had previously been applauded in her younger years for her sense of fashion, featuring on the cover of British Vogue three times.

Edward Enninful, the current editor of the magazine, said last year: ‘Princess Anne is a true style icon and was all about sustainable fashion before the rest of us really knew what that meant.

‘She is timeless in her style, and she wears a tailored suit better than anyone else I can think of.’

Those on TikTok were particularly infatuated by Princess Anne’s wedding dress she wore when she married Captain Mark Phillips.

Some on the app even claimed that the Mauren Baker Tudor-style gown was more beautiful than the dresses worn by the likes of Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle in the more recent royal weddings.

One person wrote under a montage of her wedding day: ‘Best out of all the royal brides (maybe Princess Margaret just pipped her).’

Others added, ‘she is an icon’ while another said, ‘one of the most gorgeous wedding dresses’.

A different TikTok, viewed by thousands, documented all the different coats Princess Anne had re-worn over the years, some being first put on decades ago.

Princess Anne’s style has been celebrated on TikTok, with many looking back to the outfits she wore in the 1960s and 1970s. Pictured: Princess Anne in Russia in 1973

It is not just her looks of the past, however, that Gen Z has become obsessed with.

It has also proven that Princess Anne is ahead of fashion trends.

Last year, when she appeared at the Chelsea Flower Show ahead of the Platinum Jubilee, she was seen wearing Adidas frameless sunnies – ahead of the Balenciaga and Prada spearhead sports sunglasses becoming a trend.

Her point-blank refusal to be abducted 

When confronted by a person with a gun who openly declares they want to kidnap you, most people would be frozen in a pure state of shock, frightened to move.

But when Princess Anne was put in this terrifying situation, she was reported to keep her cool, simply refusing to be taken.

The abduction attempt happened on the night of March 20, 1974, when a crazed gunman used his Ford Escort car to force the limousine carrying Princess Anne and her now ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips to stop.

They had been on their way to Buckingham Palace for a private charity screening of a film.

Ian Ball, the gunman plotting the kidnaping, then fired five gunshots through the car’s window, leading Captain Phillips to shield his wife before bundling her to the other side of the car.

The Princess’s bodyguard Detective Inspector Jim Beaton was shot three times in the chest and the arms when he tried to intervene.

Another three people were subsequently shot, including Anne’s chauffeur, a policeman and a journalist called Brian McConnell who had been following the royal couple and intervened.

The gunman was finally stopped and shoved to the ground by officer Peter Edmonds, after a former boxer who had been walking nearby, Ronnie Russell, punched him in the head before leading Anne to safety.

The whole ordeal was said to have lasted 10 minutes, including the Princess having what she later called a ‘very irritating conversation’ with the gunman.

He had held a gun to her head and demanded £3 million for the Princess, to which Anne replied: ‘Not bloody likely.’

The 23-year-old Princess later told the Crown Equerry, Lt-Col Sir John Miller, the Telegraph reports: ‘It was all so infuriating. I kept saying that I didn’t want to get out of the car, and I was not going to get out of the car.

‘I nearly lost my temper with him, but I knew that if I did, I should hit him, and he would shoot me.’

The attempted abduction of Princess Anne happened on the night of March 20, 1974, when a crazed gunman used his Ford Escort car to force the limousine carrying Princess Anne and her now ex-husband Captain Mark Philips to stop. Pictured: The Princess visiting her bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton, who sustained gunshot wounds during the attack

In an interview later that year she quipped: ‘The back of my dress split and that was his most dangerous moment. I lost my rag at that stage.’

The tale has now been recalled on TikTok many a time, with the Princess’s response to her kidnapper seeming to have stuck in the minds of the younger generations.

One user commented below a video about the incident, ‘Princess Anne is badass’, while a different person wrote ‘Anne is a baddie’.

Another person added ‘No complaining about nearly being killed’ Princess Anne ‘has grace, humour and intelligence’.

Her dry sense of humour and cheeky wit      

Like her mother, Princess Anne is known for her wicked sense of humour – a trait that those on TikTok are particularly fond of.

Countless videos on TikTok depict the late Queen’s only daughter as a witty individual.

A different clip that had millions of views, showed a member of the public waiting outside to meet the Princess at an engagement.

When Anne spotted them, she asked them ‘Are you inside or outside?’ to which they explained ‘we’re just waiting for you Ma’am’.

The humble royal cheekily responded ‘Oh … get away’.

One clip that made the rounds on the app, were clips from the time when Princess Anne took part in A Question of Sport – a BBC quiz show that pits sporting celebrities against one other and tests their knowledge.

In the clips, Princess Anne can be seen laughing and joking around with her team, as the former English Footballer Emlyn Hughes continued to call him mate instead of using her royal title.

The Princess, however, did not appear to be phased.

Another popular clip that has been shared on the app, is from 2019, when Donald Trump and his wife Melania made an official visit to the UK.

In the clip, it appears as though the Queen is summoning Anne to come and greet the President, but she appears to simply laugh and not walk over to meet him.

This has been shared multiple times on TikTok, with people claiming Anne did not want to meet the controversial US leader, laughing off the suggestion that she should greet him.

But this in fact is a misrepresentation. As reported at the time, the Princess was not snubbing the Trumps but was joking about a separate matter.

A reporter at the event revealed Princess Anne was simply saying to her mother ‘it’s only me’ after the Queen turned to check which leader was next in line for the royal welcome.

Laura Elston of the Press Association explained what happened, via a Twitter thread by The Times journalist Valentine Low.

Mr Low explained: ‘OK, here goes… Princess Anne: the truth. No, she didn’t snub the Trumps. And she wasn’t told off by the Queen.

‘Instead, the Queen, after greeting the Donald (and the Melania), turned to Anne to see who was next. But there wasn’t anyone waiting: Trump was the last leader to be received by the Queen.

‘Anne raised her hands in the air, laughed and said: “It’s just me,” adding a moment later “and this lot” as she pointed to the members of the household behind her.

‘This excellent bit of sleuthing comes from the very wonderful Laura Elston of the Press Association, who is as impartial a witness as you could hope for.’

Her aversion to social media sites like Twitter 

The Princess’ apparent aversion to social media has also made her a likeable character in the eyes of those on TikTok.

Speaking to ITV for the programme Anne: The Princess Royal at 70, she made clear her hatred of Twitter.

She said in a candid interview: ‘I know what Twitter is but I wouldn’t go anywhere near it if you paid me frankly.’

The shunning of the popular social media site led to praise from those on TikTok.

One said ‘Anne knows what’s up, as always’ while another added ‘You’ve just got to love Anne and her no nonsense approach, long may she continue.’

Despite this suggesting the Princess could be a technophobe, another recording from 2020, that was seen by more than 21 million people TikTok was Princess Anne teaching her mother, the late Queen, how to use Zoom during the pandemic.

Logging onto a royal engagement over Zoom for National Carers’ Week, the Princess asked her elderly mother:  ‘Can you see everybody? You should have six people on your screen.’

To which the Queen replied: ‘Yes, well I can see four anyway.’

This led the Princess to joke, ‘Actually, you don’t need me. You know what I look like.’

Her close relationship with her late mother and father, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh

TikTok is also full of touching tributes to the Princess’s close relationship with her late mother the Queen.

It is full of montages of the royal mother-daughter-duo laughing together during royal visits, as well as the Princess formally greeting her mother with a salute or deep curtsey.

Other emotional tributes show photos of her with her late father, the Duke of Edinburgh, including photos from when she was a baby to the last years of Prince Philip’s life.

There are a range of videos on TikTok that document the Princess in the days following her mother’s death, with one video in particular showing Anne curtseying towards her mother’s coffin outside the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Others from September show her gratefully engaging with mourners who had lined up to watch the procession of the Queen’s coffin.