ROYAL WEDDING Anne and Mark hope for private life

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33382, 14 November 1973, Page 12

ROYAL WEDDING Anne and Mark hope for private life

(By

DOUGLAS DUMBRELL,

Press Association Court correspondent, through A.A.P.)

LONDON.

“If two people love each other it is just something they feel. \\ hen it comes to getting engaged, there is no question about it.”

In these words, Captain Mark Phillips explained why it was not too difficult for him to propose marriage to Princess Anne. The Princess and Captain Phillips were talking in the Princess’s private sitting room at Buckingham Palace. Radiating happiness, often glancing and smiling at each other, the couple sat in a deep, cosy settee in the comfortably furnished room overlooking the Mall, with a distant view of Westminster Abbey, where they are to be married on Wednesday. When and where did you first meet? Anne: It was a long time ago actually, in 1968. Mark: In the Whitbread Cellar in the City, at a postOlympic party. “Grand people” Anne: My grandmother took me; she thought I might find it rather fun, and I, a beginner at eventing, was very overawed by the ioccasion with all these grand I people. We went on meet-i ing on and off at eventing occasions, three-day events where they have dances and things, where one tended to go—parties and things like that. Did the Queen and Prince Philip make it plain to the Princess she was free to marry the man of her choice? Anne: It has never been mentioned. 1 don’t think there has been any question of it, as far as the family was concerned, that one should ever marry anybody in particular. It isn’t a duty, because I am not a boy. One’s parents might have possibly said either “We don’t like him” or “We do like him.” But I think they trusted one I enough. 1 Captain Phillips, did you, because she was the Queen’s i daughter, fight against the attraction you felt for the Mark: I don’t think one can say one fought against it. I don’t know, but if two people love each other it is something they feel. When it comes to getting engaged, it is just something they feel they want to do and there is no question about it. Dodging press Did you regard dodging I the press as a sort of game? Mark: It certainly was not a game. Not the slightest bit funny. Anne: We didn’t think any of it was funny. We were forced to do it as we were getting absolutely no privacy whatsoever. At that particular point of time one’s friends were getting badly treated as well. Mark: Reading in the press every day that one is about to get engaged and about to get married, is enough to make one think that that is the last thing one is going to do, because one has been told to do so every day by the press. If you were very much in love, did it matter about the press knowing? “Confirmed bachelor” Mark: You are talking about Christmas-time, January, February and March. We were not. We were obviously very friendly, but I had no intention of getting married. I was a confirmed bachelor. Anne: He kept telling me that he was a confirmed bachelor, and I thought at least one knows where one stands. I mean, I wasn’t thinking about it. One of the myths of my career is that people have written over the years that the only thing 1 wanted to do when I left school was get married. It has been one of my bugbears. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. Mark: People don’t believe us when we say that in March we had no intention of getting married. In fact it is absolutely true, and it was only after the Badminton horse trials, in April, when the pressures of competing were less, and we weren’t quite so busy and had time to look and think about the future, that it seemed like a good idea. Anne: It is very difficult, I know, because people say, “How naive can you get, saying that you weren’t going to get married.” But that is a well-known disease tfiat the last people who know are the people who are actually involved themselves. The boring part is that they say, “Oh, you must have been fibbing,” because it seemed to them a very obvious conclusion. We are the ones who have to make the decisions, and therefore one is not going to take it quite as lightly as the newspapers. Both obstinate Mark: I think we are both sufficiently obstinate, if we; are told we are doing something, not to do it. Captain Phillips, how do ; you feel about being in the] glare of the world publicity? I Mark: Having been to two I Olympic Games, and com-. peting internationally, one; has done a certain amount I in public, and performed, I albeit on a horse, in public

in front of millions of viewers. Therefore one | wasn’t completely alien to it. ■ Has the criticism in some quarters about the expense of the wedding, the honey-< moon in Britannia and your I house at Sandhurst, distressed you? Anne: Well, the answer to the wedding is that it is'none of our business. The honeymoon in Britannia is quite simple. The half-truths about that are numerous, but the yacht is on her way to New; Zealand for the Queen and has to pass through the West Indies to get there. Army practice Mark: Of the house at Sandhurst, there has been a lot in the press. If a married officer goes to Sandhurst as an instructor, he is given quarters and that is the normal Army practice. Anne: What the Army chooses to offer you is their business. Mark: The expense — people have said £8 a week is very cheap. I am paying the going Army rate for a house, which is at a colonel’s rate, paid out of my captain’s salary. Anne: Either the critics are misinformed or, because it is news, details are a little bit sketchy. It gives the wrong impression, and it is distressing because it is not accurate, and it puts the blame at our feet when we don’t really think it has anything to do with us. There is a myth going around that there are an awful lot of empty houses in Windsor Great Park which we somehow should have been able to step into. The answer is, there isn’t one. This myth was another-very irritating criticism, again because it was misinformed. If you could choose, where would you really like to live? Likes Scotland Anne: If you are being very impracticable about the official life, then I would like to live in Scotland. Mark: I would like to live in Northumberland, but, being practical, one has got to be in reasonable reach of London. Anne: Well, we may be able to retire to Scotland. Mark: Two very old and) doddery people. Anne: I don’t think I am much enamoured with London. Mark: I don’t think we would settle in London. Anne: I don’t mind coming! here, and I don’t mind work-, ing here, but I wouldn’t live) here. Do you relax at the cinema or theatre? Theatre exhausting Anne: There is something very exhausting about going) to the theatre in London. Mark: We are not real cinema-goers. Anne: You get in at night when you have been out all day, or you have been competing, and you are physically tired, and it is really a heck of an effort to go out to the theatre. ’ I think the theatre is the most difficult thing to go to without all the attendant publicity. Cinema you can manage any time of the day or night, but the theatre is not really much fun. ~ , ' Mark: The press would be surprised how often we have been out to dinner and they haven’t cottoned on to it. In the spring and last winter one was almost going mad: because one was given so< little private life. Every-, where we went — and some| of the places we didn’t go — we read about in the papers. There was one Sunday when three papers said we had been in three different places. Anne: One of those things that they all got frightfully over-excited about was that he had been invited down to Sandringham for the weekend. We have people at

Sandringham and we have jhad them for years. I have :had friends down there on numerous occasions but, i because the papers got a bee I in their bonnet, they :suddenly decided that he was the only person staying there. “Obeying” Mark Princess, why have you ) chosen to promise to obey I in the wedding service? Mark: First, because it is ipart of the service. Anne: Yes. Perhaps I am a very old-fashioned girl. Does it mean that Captain Phillips will be the boss? Anne: I think it means that we are going to be husband and wife. Mark: Yes, husband and wife. Anne: The other thing is of course that they may have forgotten that he has to say “worship,” the only other time they use the word “worship” is in reference to the Almighty, so I think the women are doing quite well. Mark: “Obey” in the wedding service is not “obey” in the military sense I of the word. One says “obey” and the other says "worship,” one pays one’s money and takes one’s choice. Anne: I think that is fair. Don’t you? There is always give and take. Mark: On both sides. We get on quite well together really. Captain Phillips, will you continue your Army career? Mark: Yes, in the foreseeable future. Will the Princess go with you if you are posted abroad? Mark: One will have to wait and see, what, where, and when the circumstances are. Official visits Will you go with the) Princess on official visits abroad? Mark: I very much hope to go with her when she goes away. Anne: Especially the Commonwealth countries. Mark: Especially the Commonwealth countries, but, again, it really rather depends on one’s military commitments. How will you be furnishing “Oak Grove,” your Sandhurst home? Given furniture Mark: We have been given some furniture as wedding i presents, and that is we will be furnishing “Oak Grove” with. ! Anne: I think both of us ; would agree that modern (furniture is very difficult to take about with one. If you have fairly ordinary furniture —like these sofas and chairs —they fit into any house, it doesn’t matter. It is very importnt to be adaptable so you have got to have things l you can take with you. Mark: We are only going to be living in “Oak Grove” two or three years and then we will be moving on somewhere else. It is where the .’ rmy sends me. Anne: And they probably wont tell him until six months before we go. Could the Princess cook a quick meal? Mark: Come on cook, here’s one for you. Anne: Yes, I can cook a quick meal. Mark: I can recommend the j ) scrambled eggs. Enjoys cooking Anne: I did a bit of cooking at school, but we do a lot of open-air cooking on a barbecue. Mind you, I have [only just graduated from sausages. I pick it up as 1 !go along. I don’t think I; would be a very consistently good cook, but I enjoy it when I do it. Can I prepare I a meal for three or four! people? I think I could probably manage that. Mark: When one is on exercises one cooks for oneself all the time. I am not a Cordon Bleu cook, but 1 can cook providing it is simple. Anne: With Susan Small I am size 10, but I have never dieted. I skip a meal every now and again, but sometimes, if you are getting fit and you are doing a lot of riding and doing a lot of [competitions, you simply 'don’t have time to eat. I Mark: We both often miss a meal and very often just; ihaven’t the time. i Anne: I eat a perfectly jordinary sort of meal, but then I take more exercise than the average sort of per- i son. 1 go through phases of having cereals or a bit of toast or a cooked breakfast. I don’t think I have an enormous appetite. Has to diet Mark: I have to diet fori competitive reasons. I basic--ally just eat meat and green vegetables. Anne: He does too — cuts; out sugar. Mark: Cut out sugar, potatoes, bread, butter, drink —not always drink. Princess, it is said that you don’t drink. Anne: No, 1 don’t drink, nobodv believes me. I drink,; basically, coke, maybe orange i or tomato. I genuinely don’t! drink because I don’t like) lit. Champagne is my least [favourite of all drinks, be-

■ cause it gives me an instant ■lhangover. Every now and ( again you have to have a . glass of port or something. ■{Somebody says, “Oh, do ’;some,” and people have ; been forcing drink on me for .[years. It gets quite irritating. [People won’t give up saying you must have some. They think you are playing i the fool or something. No smoking Mark: And neither of us i smokes. Will you continue to compete against each other at j horse trials? 11 Mark: There is no reason [why we shouldn’t. [ Anne: And we shall continue to help each other in i horse trials. Mark: Like any other two [competitors. Would the Princess like to say why, at times, she seems to have lost patience with photographers at horse events? “A different me” Anne: I accept all the press when on an official engagement as part of the scenery, part of the day. But at horse [trials the “me” that does the official duties couldn’t possibly ride a horse. It is a different sort of “me.” I have to concentrate on what I am doing. j Mark: It is very often unfair. She is trying to ride a horse and concentrate on it, and the photographers encroach on areas where they should not be, and don’t give het a chance. Anne: The press probably, don’t understand the effectthat a competition has on a, person. Mark: Just how wound up you are. When they come' very close to a horse the clicking and whirring of the [cameras upsets the horse and it is unnecessary,, especially nowadays with the [long lenses and things. Press problems Anne: The other thing one finds very hard, sometimes,’ is the continued presence of. [the press, whether you are* actually doing something or; [not. Even once you have got off the horse they tend to? [follow you around, when you', [are not actually doing any-< [thing; and 1 think you can’t* (get away from them at all. [during the course of a competition. You never have time to relax, and I think relaxation is very important forcompetitors. On a cross- - country course, I jumped out. of the woods into a lane, and there was a fence in front of‘ me which was a stride away., The horse required his fullattention on the fences; because there was no room, for* error. When I jumped out into the lane, had taken the next stride, six cameramenjust up in the corner, all went “click” together, and the horse’s ears went like that. He stopped because he had just lost sufficient concentration in that short space of time and when .the concentration came back to. him he thought “It is toolate,” and had to stop. It, that had been an important, competition, I think 1 would’ have been very angry and., [disappointed. * Have you any other; interests, or is it all horses? , [ Anne: Apart from each, other, two large dogs —; [ Pleasure and Moriarty — and, driving. With our jobs — nis* the Army — and mine, what-; iever you like to call it — and. [the horses, unfortunately it; doesn’t leave much time to, do anything else. • Mark: We both drive; thousands and thousands of w [miles every year. I drive, between 35,000 and 40,000; [and you drive 20,000. . [ What are your hopes for. ithe future? * [ Mark: A certain amount of, privacy, that we may be; allowed to have a private life.; Will vou be pleased when, all the fuss and ceremony is; over? , ~ “Yes,” said Mark, and. Princess Anne nodded her; head in agreement.