Just like in season three—when her attempted kidnapping went unacknowledged—the biggest victim of the limited episodes was Princess Anne (Erin Doherty).
Though the troubles in her marriage to Captain Mark Phillips were briefly touched upon, one of Anne’s biggest scandals was overlooked entirely.
Breaking with tradition, Anne—the first woman in the family to give birth in a hospital instead of at home—chose to not give son Peter and daughter Zara royal titles, figuring they’d have a better shot at normality if they were just Peter and Zara, no prince or princess, no HRH (or HRR, like their mother).
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” Anne explained of the choice in brief to Vanity Fair. “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
Another Anne scandal went down in 1989, when amorous letters the queen’s daughter exchanged with Royal Navy Commanding Office Timothy Laurence were stolen and leaked to the press, leading the palace to release an unprecedented statement.
“We have nothing to say about the contents of personal letters sent to Her Royal Highness by a friend which were stolen and which are the subject of a police investigation.”
Anne and Mark would announce their separation shortly after the scandal, going on to divorce in 1992.