In the years in which Carlo and Diana dealt with the mutual betrayals and the failure of their marriage, all punctually documented by the British and international press, also the fair Princess Anna He found himself facing a scandal that would accelerate the end of his first wedding. The sister of the then heir to the throne was the victim of an embarrassing theft, a story with outlines still not entirely clear today.
From the ashes of a mystery
On December 12, 1992, Princess Anna, daughter of Regina Elisabetta And of Prince Filippo, he married the commander of the Royal Navy Sir Timothy Laurence in second wedding. The ceremony, Mirror pointed out, took place in Cratie Kirk, near the Balmoral Castle, in private form and in front of only 30 guests, since Anna had just divorced the first husband Mark Phillips, lieutenant of the first regiment of his Maestà dragons.
For Anna and Timothy that December 12th marked the crowning of their love, kept hidden for a long time. A feeling that caused a sensation. We could even say, in a perhaps more romantic way, that that marriage was celebrated on the ashes of a scandalous mystery, capable of bringing disarming into the Royal Family Already tried by the shipwreck of the Union of Carlo and Diana. In March 1989, the Express and People explained, the love letters that the then Scudiero of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Timothy, had written to the Princess were stolen from a folder arranged on Anna’s desk and sent, anonymously, to the Sun.
Nobody should have read that correspondence: at the time Anna was still married to Mark Phillipsfrom whom he had two children, Peter (born in 1977) and Zara (1981). In fact, the letters, written over 18 months, had been delivered by hand to Buckingham Palace and not in the residence of Gatcombe Park (Gloucerstershire), where Anna lived with her first husband.
The wedding of the princessapparently, had been creaking for some time now and to the court was to murmur that both her and Phillips had extramarital relationships. It also seems that at the time of the theft several people very close to Anna were aware of the Liaison with Laurence. The scandal could burst at any moment. The Sun, however, chose not to publish the letters, judging the content too much “intimate” And “spicy” and not to reveal the identity of the sender. Instead, he decided to have the correspondence in Scotland Yard, so that an investigation was opened.
Who stolen the letters of Anna?
“(The police) took the footprints of more than 500 people”revealed Rachel Bowie in the “Royally Obseed” program, mentioned by the Express, but never managed to discover the identity of the culprit. According to the most reliable version, the correspondence was subtracted by a person who worked in Buckingham Palace. The reason, however, is not entirely clear: in the reports of the newspapers it is specified that the thief He sent the letters to the Sun, but not that he asked for compensation. Consequently, it is not excluded that this person wanted to make the relationship between Anna and Timothy notes not for economic reasons, but for a spite, a spite.
“You have to face a thief in a royal palace and the victim is a princess …”said the Detective Capo Roy Ramm in the Channel 4 documentary “The Real Princess Anne” (2002). “You have to deal with the interrogations of a lot of people … in the media spotlight all over the world … Honestly we have reached a deadline. We went to the princess and said to her: ‘We are sorry, we can’t tell her who stole her letters’.’ If the thief really was a staff member, it is not excluded that he continued to work undisturbed for years Buildingof course no one would have ever discovered him.
Buckingham Palace’s declaration
The failure to publish the missive On the part of the Sun he was unable to guarantee media silence on the issue. “The only thing that was revealed about the letters, at that moment, was their extremely personal and private nature …”commented Bowie. Details not negligible at all, although in 1989 a source of the People tried to resize the nature of the correspondence, denying the Sun: “It is clear that he is very taken by her, but (the letters) are boring chatter. They represent that type of letters that the eighteen -year -olds or nineteen -year -olds, thoughts on life, rather philosophical “are written.
Another insideron the same wavelength, added: “The content is not licentious and does not suggest any intimacy, (the letters) have been written in friendly tones. If Captain Phillips wanted to know why they were written, the princess should answer some questions. “
Surprisingly, however, it was Buckingham Palace To position a fundamental piece in history: in an official note he openly declared the name of the person with whom Anna entertained the correspondence, confirming the voices that already circulated persistently: “The stolen letters were addressed to the Royal Princess by the commander Timothy Laurence, the Queen’s Scudiero”. The crown, however, punctualized: “We have nothing to say about the content of the personal letters sent in his real height by a friend, who have been stolen and are the subject of a police investigation”. In the public message Timothy Laurence was simply defined “A friend” by Anna, but the press does not believe even for a second to the version of the building.
“He didn’t stop thinking about her”
Princess Anna, as reported by People, met for the first time Timothy Laurence In 1986, when he became the squire of the sovereign. Apparently their relationship would be born from love at first sight. In 1989, in fact, a source told the magazine: “Tim did not stop thinking about the princess from their first meeting … Anna drew him as one of her most intimate confidents for a certain period. Of course Tim and the princess were physically attracted to each other, but their friendship was much deeper. Tim filled the solitude in the life of (Anna) and gave her a shoulder to cry on when she needed to tell someone her problems. He … takes care of her as her husband does not do. “
In spring 1988 the first gossip about the two began to circulate, unleashed above all by the frequent visits that the princess made to the squire when he fell ill because of the fire of Sant’Antonio. In September of the same year Anna entrusted Timothy the position of consultant to the Anne’s Charity Trust (in total there were three consultants), strengthening the gossip on an alleged love story.
In 1989, moreover, Mark Phillips did not participate in the celebrations for the 39th birthday of the Royal Princesswho held Balmoral, while Laurence was present. In August of the same year, five months after the scandal of stolen letters, Anna and Mark announced the separation. That story I accepted the end of their marriage, promoting entry into Timothy Laurence’s Royal Family. It may have even been the trigger for separation.
The daughter of the QueenThen, he faced the clamor aroused by the story with his usual temperament, without getting lost. Of course, the fact that the content of the letters had not been revealed and that the building refers to Laurence as a “A friend” He would have given Anna an advantage over public opinion. Furthermore, its history had a lower media echo compared to that of Carlo and Diana. In a sense, the curiosity and charm that the figures of the Principles of Wales exerted would have shielded her, allowing her to manage the scandal with a little more calm, in a relatively more discreet way.
In any case, however, the princess showed that he did not take care of the rumors that in the phase of theinvestigationas the leader Roy Ramm Detective also admitted: “(Anna and Laurence) They were sincere, they were not ashamed of their relationship, they had been disturbed by the fact that it had been revealed in (that) way, but they were completely open and Tim’s only concern was trying to protect the princess”.
In April of the Annus HorrriBilis of Elizabeth II, or 1992 the princess and Mark Phillips divorced. The previous month had separated Prince Andrea and Sarah Ferguson, in the following December he touched Carlo and Diana. The sovereign was disappointed and embittered. In the book “Queen of Our Times. The Life of Elizabeth II “(2022), quoted by People, a member of the Royal Staff revealed to the author Robert Hardman that he had attempted, in vain, to raise the morale of His Majesty: “(These events) afflicted (the queen) much more than she let it understand. I said to her: ‘Lady, it seems to be happening everywhere. It is almost a common practice. ‘ But she, with enormous sadness and exasperation said: ‘Three out of four’. We shouldn’t underestimate the pain he faced. ” Yet at least in the case of Anna, not all the evils came to harm.
“The princess is happy”
In May 1992 Timothy Laurence and Princess Anna did their first public exitparticipating in the Royal Caledonian Ball, during which they danced together, confirming their bond. On December 12 of that year they married. “At the time, people commented that for the first time, after years and years, (Anna) seemed really happy”said Rachel Bowie in the “Royally Obseed” program.
In 2025 the princess and deputy amateize Laurence will celebrate thirty -three years of marriage. Sir Timothy has always maintained a low profileso much so that the mirror defined it “The invisible husband”. Always ready to support his wife, but discreetly, away from the spotlight. He has never had official assignments, or titles, but in 1989 he became a member of the Royal Victoria Order and in 2004 Queen Elizabeth appointed him his “Field Aid”, a recognition that, as the people clarified, is exclusively entitled to members of the Royal Family who have military degrees.
Anna and Timothy’s union has been so successful that in August 2020 the deputy amateur joined with a certain elegance on both
weddings of the princess, saying: “It is quite fun that (Anna) first married an army officer and then a Navy officer. There must be something that attracts it in the military “.