Princess Anne hospitalized after suffering concussion in ‘incident’ at Bristol estate
Great Britain’s Princess Anne, the younger sister of King Charles III, has been hospitalized after suffering a concussion, Buckingham Palace said Monday.
The 73-year-old, known as the Princess Royal, sustained minor injuries and a concussion in a Sunday “incident” at the Gatcombe Park estate in southwest England, the palace said Monday in a statement. Anne has used the estate as her country home for decades.
The Princess of Wales, in her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis, attends a military parade for King Charles III’s birthday.
Anne was hospitalized “as a precautionary measure for observation” and is expected to make “a full and swift recovery,” the palace said, noting that she remains in Southmead Hospital in Bristol. The palace provided no details about the nature of the “incident.”
“The King has been kept closely informed and joins the whole Royal Family in sending his fondest love and well-wishes to The Princess for a speedy recovery,” the statement said.
Britain’s Press Assn. reported that the princess was walking within the protected perimeter of the estate when the incident occurred and that emergency services were called to the estate. She was treated at the scene before being transferred to the hospital, accompanied by her husband, Vice Adm. Tim Laurence, AP said.
Anne is the second oldest of the four children Queen Elizabeth II had with Prince Philip. She was briefly third in the line of succession to the British throne but has since been displaced by her nephew, Prince William, and his three children, followed by Charles’ second son, Prince Harry.
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Anne — who competed in the Montreal Olympics and was the victim of a failed kidnapping attempt in the 1970s — was married to fellow equestrian Mark Phillips from 1973 to 1992; the couple had two untitled children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall. Within months of finalizing her divorce in 1992, Anne married former naval officer Laurence, becoming only the second senior British royal to remarry after divorce. (Her predecessor was King Henry VIII four centuries before). Since then, Charles also remarried, wedding Queen Camilla in 2005.
The princess has taken on more royal duties since Charles announced in February that he had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer. His announcement came amid fervent speculation about his daughter-in-law Catherine, who revealed in March that she too had cancer and would be taking a break from royal duties.
AP reported that Anne’s royal engagements over the next few days will be postponed and she will not attend Charles’ state dinner to honor the emperor of Japan, Naruhito, and empress Masako during their visit to the United Kingdom.
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