Monday, we learned that Princess Anne had been kicked or injured by one of her horses and that she was being hospitalized. The details kept getting worse and worse over the course of the week, and I genuinely believe that a horse kicked Anne in the head and she had a significant concussion, and she was probably knocked unconscious. Anne apparently had no memory of what happened, so people were left to fill in the details, which was also a pretty bad sign. I thought Buckingham Palace was trying to minimize Anne’s injuries (they were) and that the palace was lying about Anne being released by the end of the week. But that just happened – Anne was released from the hospital this morning.
Princess Anne has been discharged from hospital five days after being admitted with minor head injuries and concussion believed to have been caused by a horse. The Princess Royal, 73, left Southmead hospital in Bristol early on Friday morning. There is no indication yet when she will have recovered enough to resume public engagements.
She will remain at her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire for a further period of rest and recuperation, it is understood, and will return to public duties only once her medical team recommend it is safe and comfortable to do so.
Her husband, V Adm Sir Timothy Laurence, said in a statement: “I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the team at Southmead hospital for their care, expertise and kindness during my wife’s short stay.”
Few details about the incident are known, and it is understood the princess was unable to remember precise details due to the concussion. There were said to be horses in the vicinity of where it occurred, within the protected perimeter of her estate, and her medical team have said her injuries are consistent with a potential impact from a horse’s head or legs.
Sources indicated Anne will return to public duties when doctors recommend she may do so but at this stage it is not possible to know when that will be. She will receive rehabilitation support at home as she follows standard concussion protocols, it is understood.
Throughout the week, Anne’s husband Tim Laurence visited her frequently and even brought her some food from home. Zara Tindall visited her mom as well, and I think Peter Phillips did too. King Charles did not visit his sister, but he did send some well wishes through his spokesperson. Anyway, I’m glad Anne was well enough to return to her home, although it doesn’t sound like she’s anywhere near recovered. It actually sounds like she’s still concussed and dealing with memory loss as well as what must have been some serious facial injuries. Poor Anne, honestly.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, attends the Easter Mattins Service at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, UK – 31 Mar 2024,Image: 861374376, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: James Shaw/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence arrive at the Sovereign’s Royal National Lifeboat Institution garden party at Buckingham Palace, London.,Image: 875827018, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jonathan Brady / Avalon
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- Trooping the Colour, The Kings’s Birthday Parade, London, UK. 15th June 2024. HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, on horseback along The Mall in the Trooping the Colour procession.,Image: 881849672, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Supplied by AVALON – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photo by Amanda Rose / Avalon
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- Princess Anne and her husband Tim Lawrence ride in a carriage after attending the Order of the Garter service, which is held at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, in Windsor, England, Monday, June 17, 2024. The Order of the Garter is the oldest and most senior British Order of Chivalry, established by King Edward III nearly 700 years ago. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool),Image: 882392220, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Pool, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kirsty Wigglesworth / Avalon
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- The Princess Royal during a visit to Save the Children HQ in Colombo during day one of their visit to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Sri Lanka Featuring: Anne, Princess Royal Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka When: 10 Jan 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Princess Anne Princess Royal during Trooping the Colour 2024 ceremony, marking the monarch’s official birthday Featuring: Princess Anne Where: London, United Kingdom When: 15 Jun 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
A concussion is not a minor head injury. The fact she is older with less resilient blood vessels in her brain ups the seriousness.
Add to that she’s probably had Covid at least once, and they probably kept her as long as they did to monitor her for signs of hematoma or stroke.
So true my Grandpa fell off a ladder when he was older.The way I remember the doctor explaining it is the brain shrinks a little as you age so the damage is more likely serious. My grandpa had fluid developed which caused additional pressure and was more serious than the concussion. Fortunately his surgery to drain it was very successful but it isn’t always. I really hope Anne’s was as well.
Concussions and closed head injuries are serious and can be devastating. I remember reading about a Mandrel sister who suffered from one and how her life and personality were affected because of her accident.. would not surprise me if Ann needs a very long recovery and never returns to her previous schedule of work events.
Cluck’s “working royals” bullpen continues to shrink rapidly…
Why can’t this family ever be transparent. It is understood there were horses nearby? So she was walking around all by herself?. Why make a mystery of how she got hurt.
Perhaps —this time — it’s less a failure to be transparent and more that no one genuinely knows the actual details. It’s probably better for them to go with that than to go with their best guesses. A bigger problem is that they’ve lied and played with truthiness so much that this feels like more of the same.
I hope that Anne has a full recovery.
I’m willing to give Anne the benefit of the doubt here. She doesn’t appear to have inherited the Windsor gene that makes them all terrible to each other and liars in general. I wish her a speedy recovery, a horse kick to the head could easily be fatal.
Easy answer: habit. When you have lied and obfuscated (or had people do it for you) your whole life, then it’s second nature. Their instinctive reaction – to events big and small – is to give half-truths and partial facts. It’s like the peas-through-a-straw answers that you get from teenagers. First they give you the story that they want you to believe, then they adjust so that they look good based on the facts out of their control that emerge, then they give you the “oh okay, yes that point” because they are forced into it. Very rarely (if ever) do they give the whole, unvarnished truth from the outset.
This is what I’ve been saying. No one (allegedly) witnessed the event and Anne has *no memory* of the event yet the tabloids and bloggers are just accepting the horse theory.
You know what makes more sense? She probably had a TIA stroke, passed out, and fell which caused the head injury.
And are they trying to say Anne doesn’t have protection officers discreetly keeping an eye on her? Because that’s another thing I don’t believe.
But sure, assume a horse randomly hit her…
Not that the palace would say this, but from a medical perspective there are signs that would indicate that this was a stroke or brain bleed vs a head injury from some kind of impact.
And heyz look at that, her husband thanked the medical staff, which to this day I don’t believe Kate has. Huh.
I don’t necessarily think that you’re wrong, a stroke is a reasonable theory. But I will chime in to say that if she *was* out with the horses, being injured is also fair theory and possibly a stronger one.
My money is on “headbutted by horse” (not kicked), simply because my experience with owning horses is that they kick way less often than they throw around those huge, bony heads – right at human head level. I’ve been kicked just a few times, head butted regularly.
Anne is a very experienced rider. She isn’t walking behind a horse close enough to get kicked and she knows her horses well enough to know if one is coming in too hot for a scratch on the nose.
@Otterton Oh, I have no doubt the doctors know what happened.
As for her injuries, the stroke cause and the head injury from falling can both be present. As long as the head injury didn’t happened in the same location as the stroke blockage then the doctors would be able to see both.
However, my main point is BP is a Lying Liar Who Lies and the media has glommed onto the horse *theory* as if it was established fact instead of asking basic questions and pointing out inconsistencies like some of us have.
And, of course, for all I know there *was* a horse involved and she did *not* have a stroke. I’m just saying their vague ass story is head scratching and I don’t know why it is being reported as factual.
This is yet again another situation in which there is vagueness from BP and we are not going to ever get clarity on it.
Anyhoo, best wishes to Anne as she recovers and good on her husband for acting reasonably normal during this time as well as expressing their gratitude for her medical team.
Generally speaking (from experience) horses are not left on properties to wander willy nilly. They are usually kept in some kind of enclosure. If Anne was wandering around in the horse paddock, or the horse field, she may have been kicked or run over. It seems very strange that this would happen though, because we all tend to keep an eye on the horse(s) at all times b/c they are unpredictable and freak out about stupid stuff. I would think her doctor(s) would know beyond the shadow of a doubt if she made physical contact with a horse or if this was something else.
She doesn’t have RPOs with her when she’s at Gatcombe with her horses, they protect the perimeter, and Gatcombe is huge. Plus she simply doesn’t get the media intrusion that the Wales and KC/CQC do. I used to ride when I was much younger and horses can be tetchy. Something may have started it and it could have reared up, striking her with a hoof or swung its head at her, knocking her over. I’m not going to get all tin-foily about this and make it out to be a TIA or some sort of coverup, I’ll save that for Katty and Willbur.
@Jaded Thank you for the information and the context!
I still don’t like the sloppy media reporting but your comment gives a more reasoned nuance to the official story.
Plus this is standard British tabloid wording, ‘it is understood’; they are incapable of writing a straightforward sentence.
Unwilling, not incapable. The difference is huge.
So you got a King on cancer treatment, sevret weapon Kkkhate out on cancer treatment, the hardest working royal out for concussion, a remote working heir and a slim down monarchy. Ok.
And yet the money paid to the Crown was raised by about 20-30 million per year.
Absolutely obscene.
Seriously!
Abolish the monarchy
Although I fully believe that Anne was the one who encouraged Dogsh*t Charlie to evict the Sussexes from their gifted home and paid-in-advance lease, I wish her a speedy recovery.
I am happy Anne appears to be doing better and is on the mend.
Best wishes to Anne and Tim!
Let’s also not forget that Eddie hasn’t been looking very healthy recently.
British media claims the slimmed down monarchy always depended on Harry, but it actually depended on Anne, the hardest working royal. Anne will not be pushed around and if she needs to scale back her schedule then that is what she will do.
If Harry was that important to the monarchy, they would treat him better, not throw him and his family to the wolves.
Why can’t they say for sure whether it’s the horses or not? Was there no staff around? Like the freaking king’s sister is riding and there was nobody around?
And another member down. That slimmed down thing ain’t working the way they wanted, innit???
Why can’t they say for sure whether it’s the horses or not? Was there no staff around? Like the freaking king’s sister is riding and there was nobody around?
And that’s another member down. That slimmed down thing ain’t working the way they wanted, innit???
I believe it was a horse, she got knocked out, can’t remember it. As I said below, I was attacked, strange word but apt, by a horse charging at me as a kid. I was hurt but not knocked out. It was bonkers. The horse was apparently not healthy and people, not me, wanted it put down. I wonder whether there’s been a move to euthanise Anne’s horse, if it’s hers. Maybe she doesn’t want the attention. Who knows.
Reading through all the comments above it’s understandable that scepticism exists, but it is likely a horse whacked her with its head. I can imagine Anne out for an evening stroll on her own and fussing one or more of her horses.
Unfortunately, general credibility issues are here for good now for the RF post KM’s fraudulent Mothers’ Day photo.
All this leaves W as, effectively, the last one standing and really should have been stepping up and doing at least as much as Charles did when PoW. At least as much, if not more!
Wishing Anne some decent downtime and a full and speedy recovery.
Like the Boy Who Cried Wolf, maybe this time the truth really is that no one really knows what happened and she can’t remember.
I was knocked down by a horse when I was a kid. I’ve never trust them since. It was such a random event. As a rural girl I treated them with respect and walked through fields properly. I was lucky to get away with only massive bruising down one side of my body. I can appreciate she was probably knocked out by a horse and has lost memory of it.
It was good that Anne’s husband took her lunch, and answered questions shouted at him with civility, and that her children visited her. Normal and behaviour and human decency was modelled.
My mom was hospitalized in May due to a major medical emergency, not going to get into details as it was very upsetting to see her like that but it involved being in the neuro ICU for nearly 2 weeks aka where people go for severe head issues involving the brain (not just injuries like concussions). You do not mess around with head injuries. My mom didn’t have an injury per se (that we know of) but some of the articles around Anne reflect my mom’s hospitalization experience. Head/brain trauma takes a long time to recover from. My mom’s first week out of the hospital was brutal, she was in so much pain and it was so traumatizing for my family to see her like that (she is doing a lot better, it’s been 6 weeks since she was discharged and all her doctors are thrilled with her progress). I hope Anne is recovering okay, I know she has access to the best doctors. I doubt this will kill her love for horses but I’m wondering if she’ll rethink riding so often at her age? I know QEII rode well into her 90s and only had to stop those last few years with all her “mobility” issues. Wishing her well!
I’m wondering if part of the vagueness is due to one of her asshole dogs being involved. Some of them already have records and might not survive another run in with the authorities.
I’m glad she’s on the road to recovery, head injuries at that age (or any age) is no joke.