The Scary Princess Anne Moment You Didn't See In The Crown
Netflix's remarkable series The Crown follows the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II and her family. The show is so fascinating that viewers are dying to know what the royal family really thinks of it, and we know that at least one member of the family actually watches the series. Those obsessed with modern royal life will be disappointed to know that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle won't be depicted in upcoming seasons and likely, neither will Kate Middleton and Prince William.
Season 4 centers around two major plotlines: the frosty relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the decline of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's marriage. These are some intense storylines, and of course, the series also explores the lives of other members of the royal family, including the Queen's only daughter, Princess Anne. But with so much going on, The Crown actually missed a major historical moment: the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne.
On March 20, 1974, Princess Anne was in a Rolls-Royce limousine, driving back from a charity film screening, according to Smithsonian Magazine. She was in the car with her then-husband Captain Phillips, her lady-in-waiting, and her bodyguard, who was sitting up front in the passenger seat. While they were driving back to Buckingham Palace, a white Ford Escort zoomed past their car and came to a screeching halt right in front of their car, forcing the driver to stop. Here's what happened next.
Princess Anne was stubborn during an attempted kidnapping
The Crown neglected to depict one of the biggest moments of Princess Anne's life. After the princess's vehicle was stopped by a mysterious car, a man named Ian Ball stepped out of it. He was an unemployed laborer, per the Evening Standard, with a history of mental health struggles. He planned on kidnapping the princess and holding her ransom for £3 million.
Ball attempted to get the princess out of the car after a shoot-out with her bodyguard. She was shockingly composed, considering the circumstances, according to the Smithsonian Magazine. Years later, in the ITV documentary Anne, the princess recalled what happened.
"We had a discussion about where – or where not – we were going to go... I said I didn't think I wanted to go," Princess Anne said. "I was scrupulously polite because I thought it would be silly to be too rude at that stage. So I mean, [it was] a fairly low key discussion about the fact that I wasn't going to go anywhere and wouldn't it be much better if he just went away and we all would forget about it?" Others said that Anne told Ball it was "not bloody likely" that she would go with him.
In the end, Ball was arrested after a scuffle with the police. While the situation must have been scary, it's amazing how stubborn Anne was in such an intense situation. That's not the only major event The Crown missed.