There are royal engagements and there are royal engagements that GB News describes as “rare,” and Princess Anne and Prince Edward appearing at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow on Wednesday for the Commonwealth Games athletics and para athletics programme, sitting near each other in the stands alongside the Duchess of Edinburgh Sophie, is the second kind, because the schedules of the two siblings rarely align in a way that produces photographs of them side by side at the same event.
Anne, 75, is the Princess Royal, the hardest-working member of the Royal Family by the metric of annual engagements, completing more than 300 charitable and organisational commitments per year including patronages in sport, military organizations, horse racing, and sailing. She is a former Olympian, having represented Great Britain in equestrian three-day eventing at the 1976 Montreal Games. She was at the Commonwealth Games watching the athletics. She wore her signature Adidas wraparound sunglasses, which are the sunglasses that have appeared in approximately one hundred royal photographs over the past decade and which Anne has declined to replace.
Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, attended in his capacity as vice-patron of Commonwealth Sport, which is the role that gives his presence at the Games an institutional justification beyond the family connection. He was “wholly absorbed by the action on the track,” per GB News, which is the description of a person watching athletics. Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, was photographed leaning towards Anne during the afternoon’s events, which is the body language of someone engaging with their sister-in-law.
Together they present a version of the Royal Family that is neither the King managing cancer and declaring spinach the world’s best vegetable, nor the Harry situation, nor the succession drama, but simply three people who are related to each other watching running at a sports stadium in Scotland.
Anne wore the Adidas sunglasses. Edward watched the track. Sophie leaned toward Anne. The monarchy continued.
When three senior royals who rarely share a diary make a rare joint appearance at athletics in Glasgow, what exactly does the Royal Family look like when the cameras aren’t staging it?
Sources
GB News: Prince Edward and Princess Anne reunite for rare joint engagement in Scotland
