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Last month, the hardest-working royal was revealed to be Princess Anne, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s only daughter, who is known for her industrious nature and has retained her top spot. On Thursday, the Princess Royal will attend the Oxford Farming Conference, an annual event for UK farmers, in her role as honorary president. Anne is the only working royal who is scheduled to carry out official engagements until January 19 — a sign that the Princess intends to uphold her position as the hardest worker. Her next engagement will be on Wednesday, when — in her role as the Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Logistic Corps — she will visit The Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment deployed on Operation TOSCA in Cyprus.
Anne’s visit will come the day after the publication of her nephew’s highly-anticipated memoir, Spare, which is said to be provoking fear among the Royal Family.
It has long been speculated that Prince Harry will delve into his relationships with members of his family, namely with his father King Charles III, brother Prince William, and stepmother Queen Camilla.
An advanced reader has claimed that it is William and his wife Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, who need to brace for the worst.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, they said: “Generally, I think the book [will be] worse for them than the Royal Family is expecting. Everything is laid bare. Charles comes out of it better than I had expected, but it’s tough on William, in particular, and even Kate gets a bit of a broadside. There are these minute details, and a description of the fight between the brothers. I personally can’t see how Harry and William will be able to reconcile after this.”
READ MORE: Danish Queen’s title removal serves as warning for Harry amid fears over memoir
Anne and Harry’s relationship remains largely unknown, with the focus on the Duke and his brother (Image: Getty Images)
Spare will be published on January 10 (Image: PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE/RAMONA ROSALES)
Since the news of the interviews, royal expert Emily Andrews has tweeted about some claims made in the trailers by Prince Harry.
Sharing a video on Twitter for his upcoming interview with 60 Minutes, which airs on CBS, Ms Andrews wrote: “[Prince] Harry has some valid points BUT he ignores one very obvious (and well-known) source of stories.”
Read more HERE.
While it remains unknown whether Anne will come out unscathed, according to reports, her relationship with Harry has been affected by his exit.
It has prevously been said that Anne was protective of Harry, particularly following the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales. In a 2017 interview with ITV News, Anne praised her mother’s decision to stay at Balmoral Castle with the young Princes William and Harry because, she said, it was the best for the boys.
“I don’t think either of those two would have been able to cope if they had been anywhere else,” Anne said.
“They had that structure, they had people around them who could understand, give them the time, little time that they had, which was never going to be very much, to try and come — even in a fleeting sense — to terms with what had happened,” the Princess added, suggesting she’s had Harry’s back since the very beginning.
However, according to some, relations between the royals began to shift when Harry became involved with his wife-to-be.
Some commentators have speculated that the Princess Royal was dubious about his relationship with Meghan Markle from the start. TV psychic Debbie Davies told the Daily Star last year: “Princess Anne is fabulous, she just gives everything that she thinks away on her face. She doesn’t need to say anything, you can see it in her eyes.”
She suggested that Anne doesn’t hide what she’s thinking, adding that this was especially evident at Harry and Meghan’s wedding. “Princess Anne is just like her dad was, Prince Philip could see straight through Meghan Markle,” she said.
Similarly, royal commentator Neil Sean claimed Anne and Meghan’s first meeting did not live up to the Duchess’ expectations. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he explained that Meghan requested the meeting with Anne, knowing her longstanding position as one of the most hardworking royals.
He claimed Anne “pointed out that it wasn’t a working monarchy, it was a job, you turn up on time, you do your research, and do the duty. It’s all about the project at hand,” adding: “According to a very good source, Meghan Markle failed to warm to Princess Anne. And Princess Anne always knew that Meghan would have a very short shelf-life in the world of the British monarchy.”
The Royal Family wave at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after their wedding (Image: Getty)
A month after Harry and Meghan carried out their final engagements and moved overseas, Anne sat down for an interview with Vanity Fair and, some have suggested, made a dig at the couple when she said: “I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past and it’s often true, isn’t it? You don’t necessarily look at the previous generation and say: ‘Oh, you did that?’ Or, ‘You went there?’
“Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh let’s do it a new way.’ And I’m already at the stage, ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics.’”
In contrast, Robert Hardman, a royal author who interviewed the Princess Royal to mark her 70th birthday, claimed Anne had “sympathy” for the Sussexes.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme in July 2020: “She explains that she’s rather glad she’s not setting off on this path today. She fully accepts that the media are especially interested in the new and young and glamorous and that does place added pressures and it’s not an easy role to play.” 
Harry and Meghan stepped down from their royal roles in early 2020 (Image: Getty)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix show is a “form of revenge” against the royals, a commentator has claimed.
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams also said the explosive documentary will be “catastrophic” for the Duke of Sussex’s strained relationship with his brother Prince William.
Follow live updates HERE.
If the Princess Royal was initially supportive of Harry and his wife, circumstances changed after the Sussexes’ explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.
According to Ingrid Seward, royal expert and editor-in-chief at Majesty magazine, the Princess chose to distance herself from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex amid the “drama”.
She previously told Express.co.uk: “Anne has no need to get involved in the Harry and Meghan drama at all. Remember she is her father’s daughter and he frequently chose to distance himself from issues he didn’t consider his business.”
Harry unexpectedly returned to the UK a month after the interview aired, when he joined the rest of the Royal Family for the funeral of his grandfather, Prince Philip.
Reports hint he did not receive a warm welcome from some members of the family, but according to Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent Katie Nicholl, Anne and Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie, were particularly displeased to see Harry. 
Both Anne and Harry attended the funeral of Prince Philip (Image: Getty)
The author of William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls, discussed the funeral, which took place in Windsor in April 2021, on Vanity Fair’s podcast Dynasty.
She said: “Certain family members, Princess Anne, for example, and Sophie Wessex, who is incredibly close to the Queen, were not overly welcoming to Harry. In fact, I was told that Harry went back to America feeling even more ostracised from his family.”
In many ways, Anne and Harry had similar royal destinies — both are the secondborn children of monarchs, both are the ‘spare’.
Fans of the Princess have suggested the Duke of Sussex follow in his aunt’s footsteps, particularly following the announcement that his forthcoming memoir would be titled after their shared royal role. 
Some have urged Harry to take follow in his aunt’s footsteps as ‘spare’ to the heir (Image: Getty)
One took to Twitter, and said: “Do you know who is also a spare? This amazing woman, who understood her role, has never complained, stood by her brother and supported him in every way. Sad that Prince Harry didn’t learn from her.”
Another wrote: “Princess Anne is a role model for being a ‘spare’. She rocked it. Prince Harry Spare is just a bitter & spoilt man-child. He sure loved being a Royal, the privileges, freebies & attention. But he’s always been jealous of William, the heir, while he was ‘just’ the spare.”
Harry’s memoir, which will be published in 16 countries on January 10, is expected to contain explosive details about the Royal Family. The publicity statement for the book read: “With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the book announcement.
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