Anne gets mother of all tributes from loving Zara

Zara and Peter Phillips have paid a warm tribute to the Princess Royal's role as a mother in an interview to mark her 60th birthday.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Aug 2010, 11:17 BST
Updated 13th Aug 2010, 11:17 BST

In a revealing exchange, her daughter Zara said: "I look at her and just think if I was going to be a mother that's what I would want to be like. I would like to be as good a mother as she has been to us."

Son Peter added: "Her advice generally about life has been invaluable. Whenever we may have got slightly above our station she'd be the first one to bring us back down to earth fairly hard."

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Their comments, which were aired last night in a special BBC Television documentary, came as Anne inspected a military graduation parade at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate yesterday.

Peter also described his mother as "great fun".

He said: "When she's in an environment of family and friends, she definitely relaxes a lot more and is great fun and is always the one laughing the loudest."

In the programme she speaks candidly about growing up within the Royal Family and her early passion for horse riding.

The Princess, who represented Great Britain at the 1976 Montreal games and was elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1988, also said she had high hopes for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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She said "You only have to go round the site to see what it's been able to do.

"That's a hell of a legacy just to begin with, never mind the sports legacy that might come afterwards."

The Princess, who turns 60 on Sunday , told the programme her horse-riding career gave her "a degree of independence".

She said: "I certainly saw it as a way of proving you had something which was not dependent on your family and it was down to you to succeed or fail.

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Speaking about her charity work, Zara said: "I'm always amazed by how much she can fit into a week...It's just unbelievable her capacity to do all of it."

Asked if she would ever slow down on her commitments, Anne added: "Look around at the members of my family who are considerably older than me and tell me whether they have set an example which suggests I might – unlikely."

Malcolm Barker on the Princess at 60: See tomorrow's Yorkshire Post.