Princess Anne was ‘not received well’ when she visited the United States for the first time in 1970, being accused of looking ‘sulky’ and even nicknamed ‘Princess Sourpuss’
While she might be considered one of the most popular members of the Royal Family now, Princess Anne was once subject to vicious barbs from the US media. The Princess Royal made her first official visit to the US in 1970 when she joined her older brother in Washington.
Anne and the-then Prince Charles spent two days touring around the capital and meeting President Richard Nixon. Anne however was “not very well received” by the American media at the time.
She was branded “sulky” and during one sharp exchange with a journalist replied with “I don’t do interviews” when asked what she thought about the Washington Monument. Reports at the time suggested Anne could have been “tired”, having previously spent 10 days touring Canada.
On Channel 5’s Princess Anne: A Quite Remarkable Royal, journalist Victoria Murphy explains that the US press were quick to highlight that Anne should have “smiled more”. She said: “One of the first trips that she did officially was to go with Prince Charles to the US in 1970.
“This trip was actually quite challenging because she got some negative press as a result of this trip from the US media. They were quite quick to pick up on the fact that she wasn’t smiling very often. They thought that she didn’t look like she was enjoying herself as much as they thought she might.”
Royal commentator Wesley Kerr however believes it was Anne’s natural expression that led Americans to believe she wasn’t looking happy. He said: “Her resting expression isn’t smiling and happiness so I think there was some criticism from the US press that she wasn’t a fairytale princess, that she was perhaps a bit surly.”
In 2021, commentator Penny Junor told Express.co.uk that many journalists in the States felt as though Anne looked “sulky” during her US tour. It led Anne to being nicknamed “Princess Sourpuss” by Americans.
Junor said: “She went to the White House to visit Nixon when he was President and there was a lot of negative press because she seemed to be so sulky.
“She looked at the time as though she didn’t want to be there, they said. She refused to answer anyone’s questions, snappily saying ‘I don’t give interviews’.
Anne and Charles arrived in Washington on July 18, 1970 as part of a semi-official visit. They were hosted by President Nixon’s two daughters, Julie and Tricia Nixon and the President’s son-in-law, David Eisenhower.
At the time of the visit 19-year-old Anne had only recently taken on royal responsibilities. The stay saw the royals visiting the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Vernon and the Smithsonian Institution’s Space Museum.
They attended a barbecue at Camp David and a Washington Senators baseball game. On the final evening, the Nixons hosted a dinner and a party at the White House, which was attended by over 700 guests.
Princess Anne: A Quite Remarkable Royal airs on Saturday at 9pm on Channel 5.
