Members of the royal family are apparently discouraged from shaking hands with the public even before the coronavirus pandemic. But while some royals have relaxed this protocol, Princess Anne is still strictly following the "no handshake" rule.
According to Reader's Digest, Princess Anne has never been one to extend her hand to people because then she'd have to do it with everybody else in the room. Apparently, when she was a teenager, they were told to hold off with the handshakes because they will not be able to stop -- either they do it for all the guests or they don't do it all.
Princess Anne said that the guide stuck with her over the years but she did notice some members of the royal family foregoing the protocol. Even Queen Elizabeth has been doing a lot of handshaking when she was still personally holding royal engagements. The monarch apparently wanted to make the royal family more personable so she changed her stance about this greeting.
The Princess Royal said that there's nothing wrong with shaking hands to greet and show good will. However, when there are hundreds of people waiting in line, Princess Anne said that it becomes "a shaking hands exercise," rather than a courteous greeting.
It was the same advice that Princess Anne's younger brother, Prince Edward, received. In an interview with Sky News,the Earl of Wessex said that they were told not to shake hands during the walkabout because then they would be stuck with doing it for the public.
These days, however, the royal family are actually compelled to follow protocols because handshaking could spread the coronavirus. Instead of the usual greetings, Prince Charles have avoided handshakes by doing a "Namaste" hand sign, while the rest of the royal family use hand sanitizers to ensure that they are virus free.
Meanwhile, Princess Anne will be honored in a documentary for ITV for her 70th birthday. The Princess Royal: Anne at 70 is a 90-minute feature that will highlight the Queen's daughter as the "mold-breaker" who was rebellious in her own ways. The televised feature will have some of her friends talking about their memories of Princess Anne as a fierce young woman. Her children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, will also be interviewed in the documentary.
Princess Anne will turn 70 years old on Aug. 15. Buckingham Palace has not announced if there will be a party in her honor since large gatherings of any kind are still discouraged in this pandemic.
