Princess Anne talks for first time about mystery horse accident that left King Charles ‘deeply worried’

Princess Anne has revealed for the first time how close she was to being left with devastating injuries after a mystery accident last summer.

Discussing the incident, in which she was found unconscious on her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire before spending five days in hospital, the King’s sister said she recalls “nothing” of what happened.

Buckingham Palace has only said her injuries were consistent with being struck in the head by a horse’s hoof or head.

The Princess Royal , 74, also insists she will not be slowing any time soon, saying it “isn’t an option” for those in the Royal Family.

Hinting strongly at the seriousness of the accident and her concussion — which the Mail understands left King Charles “deeply worried” — she said: “You’re jolly lucky … if you can continue to be more or less compos mentis and last summer I was very close to not being.”

Asked if she had any memory of what happened last June, she admitted: “No, nothing. I know where I thought I was going and that was to go to the chickens. No, nothing to do with horses. Seeing the chickens was my regular visit. I don’t have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way.”

She said with unusual seriousness: “It just reminds you, shows you, you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover. Take each day as it comes, they say.”

An air ambulance was scrambled to the estate and the princess was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol by road.

She then spent five nights as an inpatient before being discharged to convalesce at home.

She was seen a few weeks later still sporting heavy bruising around her face.

The princess confirmed there were no lasting injuries, but added: “You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus, really.”

Anne is a key member of the King’s slimmed-down working monarchy and has stepped up amid his cancer diagnosis, taking on duties such as official investitures.

She carried out her first public event in 1969 aged 18 when she opened an educational and training centre in Shropshire.

And last year she undertook 474 engagements, once more making her the hardest-working royal.

Speaking in Cape Town, where Anne has just undertaken the Royal Family’s first foreign tour of the year, she again showed her strong dedication to duty.

After a whirlwind two-day visit that ended on Wednesday, the princess was asked whether retirement was an option, replying: “It really isn’t written in, no.

“It isn’t really an option, no, I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s a retirement programme on this particular life.”

While in Cape Town, Anne laid a wreath at a Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial — the first to recognise 1700 black South Africans and other races who died working as First World War labourers.

She performed the task as CWGC president, a role that had been carried out by the Duke of Kent, 89, since 1970 with Anne taking over in 2023.

The princess said: “I’m very lucky to take on from the Duke of Kent the CWGC, but he’s been doing that for a very long time. He did it very well and has covered the globe in support of them … in the end he felt physically that he couldn’t travel as much, and he couldn’t be as efficient in supporting — and I was lucky enough to be asked.

“On the one hand you go for as long as you can, but you have to accept there are some things you can’t do anymore and he did that.

“I’m the beneficiary of that which has allowed me to take that on.”