Princess Anne reveals heartbreaking memory loss after suffering a concussion

The Princess Royal has had two publicly confirmed concussions

Princess Anne has revealed her heartbreaking memory loss after suffering a concussion.

King Charles’s younger sister gathered with fellow athletes from the 1976 Montreal Olympics on Tuesday evening for a reception marking half a century since they competed together at the Games.

 

The gathering brought together around 150 guests, many now in their seventies and eighties, for dinner following the princess’s speech.

The Princess Royal, 75, made history as the first member of the Royal Family to participate in the Olympics when she was chosen for the equestrian three-day event.

Princess Anne

Princess Anne has revealed her heartbreaking memory loss after suffering from a concussion

 | PA

However, she revealed to the 150 guests at the exclusive Lansdowne Club in Mayfair that she has no memory of the cross-country portion of the competition.

“I had a slight problem in that the bit I would like to remember, which is the cross country, I don’t,” she told attendees. “I suspect Goodwill remembers it, but I don’t.”

The memory loss resulted from a concussion sustained when her horse became stuck in mud during a jump.

The princess came off Goodwill at the 19th fence during the cross-country course, with the BBC commentator at the time praising her “outstanding physical courage” for continuing.

Princess Anne

The memory loss resulted from a concussion sustained when her horse became stuck in mud during a jump

 | GETTY

Yet Anne has since clarified that remounting was not entirely her own decision: “Come on, be fair, I was put back on! The lights were on, but there was no one at home.”

She was just 25 years old when she competed at the summer Games, with her mother Queen Elizabeth II, father Prince Philip, and brothers Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward all watching from the stands.

The late Queen had also officially opened the tournament in her capacity as Queen of Canada.

Anne remarked that her fellow Olympians all looked “extremely well on it” and acknowledged that the milestone “does mark the passage of time just a little”.

Princess Anne

The Princess Royal aboard Goodwill during the mixed three-day event team cross-country

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Among those present were equestrians Hugh Thomas and Jennie Loriston-Clarke, who have maintained contact with the princess over the decades. They recalled the tight-knit group of riders who lodged together in chalets situated two hours from Montreal.

The team had to improvise their uniforms after not being issued a proper kit, purchasing matching outfits from local shops and attaching Union flags themselves.

In her speech on Tuesday, Anne praised the “enjoyment, long-lasting friendship, and the ability to inspire others” that Olympic competition had given them all, thanking guests for their “contribution to Olympic history”.

She described the Games as “an experience, and a lot of it was a good experience”.

\u200bPrincess Anne

Princess Anne arriving in Montreal in 1976, carrying her own suitcase, with her ex-husband, Captain Mark Phillips

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The equestrian tradition continued in the family when her daughter Zara Tindall secured silver in the same three-day event discipline at the London 2012 Olympics.

The 1976 episode was not the only concussion suffered by Princess Anne; in 2024, she was hospitalised for five days at Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

This followed an incident on her Gatcombe Park estate, which left her with a concussion and memory loss.

Medical teams believed Anne’s injuries were caused by an impact from a horse’s head or legs.