LONDON - Princess Anne upset royal fans waiting outside a church after snatching a Christmas gift from a 75-year-old well-wisher and saying "what a ridiculous thing to do", newspapers reported.
The Princess, Queen Elizabeth's eldest child, made the "rude" comment to Mary Halfpenny who was part of a 1,000-strong crowd that braved the cold to greet the royal family after a traditional Christmas Day church service at Sandringham, in eastern England.
Buckingham Palace said Anne, whose daughter Zara Phillips suffered slight injuries in a car crash last week, had not intended to cause offence.
"The Princess Royal meets thousands of people every year and it is clear that today there has been a misunderstanding of some kind," a palace spokesman told the Daily Mail.
Halfpenny said she had waited three hours to give the homemade basket of flowers to the Princess, regarded as the hardest-working member of the royal family because of her work for charities.
"There was no hint of a thankyou," she told the Daily Mirror.
"It took me ages to make up the basket. It sounded like Anne was making a comment about the effort I had gone to."
Other onlookers were also startled by the princess's "grumpy" behaviour.
"I saw Princess Anne snatch the basket. She was extremely rude," Sheila Clark told the Sun.
Another well-wisher Lesley Hurst said: "It was an awful thing to say to someone who wanted to hand over a gift."
Princess Anne upsets Christmas well-wishers
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