A new photograph of The Princess Royal has been released by Buckingham Palace to mark her 75th birthday today.

Princess Anne looked elegant as ever in a blue and white dress with a high collar while leaning gently on a window frame.

The regal image was taken last month at Gatcombe Park, Anne’s private residence, by John Swannell. 

The renowned royal photographer is known for taking official portraits of Anne for her 60th and 70th birthdays, alongside numerous other significant images of the royals, including those of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the late Queen’s official Diamond Jubilee portrait in 2012.

Anne and her husband, Sir Tim Laurence, are famously private and reportedly spending the day sailing their 42ft yacht, Ballochbuie—named after an ancient woodland on the Balmoral estate—around the Western Isles of Scotland.

Indeed, Anne is said to hold a ‘no-frills’ approach to her birthdays which means she only celebrates major milestones.

Expert Roya Nikkhah shared on the Royals with Roya and Kate podcast that Anne’s approach is: “I will do things for my birthdays that have a zero, but I won’t do things for my birthdays that have a five.”

She added Anne has reportedly cancelled meetings in the run to the big day to avoid discussions about how she might mark her 75th.

The photograph released to mark Princess Anne’s 75th birthday shows her wearing a blue and white dress, leaning by a windowsill at her private residence, Gatcombe Park.

She was born Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise at Clarence House on 15 August 1950

She has taken a ‘no frills’ approach to the day and will be celebrating privately by sailing around Scotland

In spite of her attempts to downplay her milestone birthday, Anne hosted over a hundred charity organizations at Buckingham Palace last month to mark the occasion.

It was said to be her only request for her big day, turning the royal residence into the ‘charities forum’.

“This epitomizes what Her Royal Highness is passionate about,” a palace insider revealed. “She didn’t wish to celebrate her birthday with anything else other than bringing her charities together to learn more about their endeavors and how she can support them.”

The princess, wearing a sand coloured skirt suit, arrived at the event after Colonel John Boyd, her Private Secretary, welcomed guests to the Palace’s ballroom, telling them: ‘There has been a significant amount of interest in HRH’s 75th birthday celebrations.

‘As you are aware the princess has given decades of time and support to more than 400 charities and patronages.

‘It probably won’t come as a surprise, given HRH’s commitment to you all, that the way the Princess wants to celebrate this milestone is to replicate what she’s done on previous significant birthdays and hold this charities forum again to once again understand how she can help you, at a time when the third sector is facing unprecedented challenges and transformations.’

In her own speech to more than 216 guests from 111 different organisations, Anne was typically self-effacing, telling them hilariously: ‘I’m not here because this was my choice.

‘You very kindly asked me to become patron of your organisations, so it’s an honour for me to have all of you here.’

Princess Anne invited more than 216 guests from 111 different organisations to the event on Thursday

Princess Anne is known for being one of the hardest-working members of the royal family

The Princess Royal beamed on Thursday as she chatted with members from the charities she supports 

With 400 patronages to her name, the royal residence was packed for the ‘charities forum’ 

A palace source said Princess Anne (pictured) ‘didn’t want to do anything for her birthday’ except bring the charities she cares about together 

She also spoke about ‘the pleasure I get from visiting and finding out a bit more about what you do.’

Anne is regularly named the Royal Family’s hardest-working royal, even in her 70s.

Last year she conducted 474 public engagements. But, as the princess refuses to allow journalists to accompany her on official engagements – unless she can be persuaded there is a good reason – her work attracts little publicity. 

‘She’s never felt the need to court public opinion and has just got on with the job with the minimum of fuss,’ a source told Daily Mail’s Rebecca English last week. 

But her 75th birthday celebrations were well attended, which heard from three charity leaders: Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund spoke about public trust in charities; David Holdsworth, CEO of the Charity Commission spoke about the financial challenges faced by charities; Zoe Amar, founder and director of Zoe Amar Digital spoke about the opportunities and challenges raised by technology.

Their presentations were followed by a Q&A session led by Professor Lynne Berry, Chair, Human Tissue Authority, who addressed the Princess by saying: ‘Your leadership… and encouragement to a group of charities that range in size, in location, in purpose, is quite extraordinary.’

Among the charities invited were two of her most longstanding patronages, Save the Children, which she became patron of in 1970, and Riding for the Disabled, of which she became patron in 1971.

Some of her newest charities were also represented, including Friends of the Elderly and Royal Star and Garter Homes – both formerly patronages of Queen Elizabeth II – and the Naval Children’s Charity, formerly a patronage of the Duke of York.

The princess is said to be sailing around Scotland with her husband Sir Tim Laurence for her birthday

King Charles III and Princess Anne at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

Anne at the coronation of her brother in May 2023. Anne shows no sign of slowing down just yet and she holds the title of the hardest working royal, having taken on 474 engagements last year

Anne with Queen Elizabeth II in June 2019. To mark her 70th birthday in 2020, Anne enjoyed a socially distanced lunch with her mother

Anne and her father Prince Philip at the 2012 Olympics. Anne, like Philip, is reportedly planning to wind down her royal duties as she approaches her 80th and then 90th birthday 

Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Anne following the birth of Peter Phillips, who Anne decided would not be given a title

The late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip with their two children Prince Charles and Princess Anne (circa 1951)

A portrait of Princess Anne as a toddler, who was the late queen’s second child and only daughter

In her address, the Princess also told guests: ‘I would just like to make the point that we’re very fortunate that His Majesty has allowed us to use Buckingham Palace for this event… And I need to say that!’

She concluded by saying: ‘The responsibility and respect that you give to your own organisations, the people who work for you and your own beneficiaries, is perhaps the key to what makes you so important. Respect and responsibility. Thank you very much for doing what you do.’

Anne cancelled her last major birthday celebration in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Five years ago, the Daily Mail reported Anne had been due to celebrate her 70th with a soiree hosted by her mother Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

The Princess Royal instead marked the occasion with a sailing trip around the west coast of Scotland with her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.

The late Queen also hosted a secret, socially distanced lunch with her daughter at Frogmore House, an empty private royal residence on her Berkshire estate, to mark the occasion.

No other members of the Royal Family were present, and only minimal staff – who were part of the Queen’s castle ‘bubble’ at the time – attended.

Anne’s next milestone birthday will be her 80th in 2030 and, according to Roya, Anne plans to start ‘winding down’ her royal duties after that.

The royal insider said: ‘I was told that she’s told her team: “I’m going to start winding down a little bit at 80, in five years’ time, and then I want to step back completely at 90.”‘