Princess Anne’s horse accident was far more serious than the public was told, a royal source has claimed.
The Princess Royal spent five days in the hospital in June 2024 with a minor head injury and concussion after suffering a blow to the head from a horse on her Gatcombe Park Estate.
In January, Princess Anne, 74, revealed that she had no memory of the incident. She returned to Southmead Hospital in Bristol the following month to thank the healthcare workers for their support.
In June 2025, King Charles's younger sister attended Trooping the Colour on horseback; this was the first time she had ridden in public since the incident.
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|Princess Anne horse accident 'so much worse than public was told'
A source, who knows Princess Anne well, told the Times in a significant health update: “Her accident was so much worse than anyone let on and it took quite a while for her to feel herself again.”
Three weeks after the incident, the Princess Royal returned to royal duties with a black eye, maintaining that she did not remember a thing about the accident which left her concussed.
At the time, Buckingham Palace briefed the public that Princess Anne was on her way to check on her chickens on her Gatcombe Park Estate.
She is thought to have been subsequently struck by a horse's head or legs.
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|Princess Anne returning to horseback at Trooping the Colour in 2025
After being assessed by paramedics at the scene, Anne was rushed 30 miles away to Southmead by road for tests, treatment and observation.
The princess spent five nights in the hospital after the accident and did not return to public royal duties until almost three weeks later, after rehabilitation support at home.
Speaking to staff in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Southmead Hospital in February, Princess Anne said: "You've been filling in the blanks which partly, from my perspective, is really useful to know what happened because I seriously don't have any idea and, sadly, I don't have huge memories of being in here either.
"I just know I was really well looked after, so thank you.
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|Princess Anne had a visible black eye when she returned to work in July 2024
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|Princess Anne spoke about her horse incident during an interview in South Africa in January 2025
"But whatever you did, it seemed to work… the recovery being relatively straightforward, thankfully. That isn't always true, so I'm really grateful.
"I'm also grateful in a weird sort of way that I remember nothing because that has huge advantages, you can just carry on."
During her trip to South Africa in January, the Princess Royal told the Press Association that seeing the chickens was "my regular visit, I don't have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way.
"It just reminds you, shows you - you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover."