Princess Anne is turning 60 on Sunday and says she has no intention of slowing down. The avid horse rider who represented her country at the 1976 Olympics, Anne is still heavily involved in sport, serving on London's 2012 Olympic organizing committee.
She's also involved in some 200 charities and organizations, something which keeps her very busy. Anne, the Princess Royal, spoke to the BBC ahead of her birthday on Sunday, extolling the benefits of the Olympics and referencing her famously energetic mother, 84-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, when asked if she might take things down a notch.
"Look around at the members of my family who are considerably older than me and tell me whether you think they have set an example which suggests that I might", she said in an interview with the BBC, aired Thursday. "Some of it is in the genes, some of is just luck".
Anne's official title is The Princess Royal, but she cultivates a no-nonsense public image and took the unusual step of not conferring royal status upon her children, Peter, 32, and Zara, 29. Both were also interviewed as part of the program.
Zara, who like her mother is an accomplished equestrian, could participate in the 2012 games. Anne told the BBC she would be pleased if her daughter qualified. She also spoke about her own career as a professional rider, and arched her eyebrows when an interviewer asked her about her reputation for competitiveness.
"I wouldn't define it like that", she said, saying she what others saw as competitiveness was in fact frustration with her own horsemanship. "What annoyed was not doing it very well", she said. "In my day you were the person to blame, not the horse." Anne is due to spend her birthday with her second husband, Vice Adm. Timothy Laurence. GPD © AP
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