Princess Anne made a surprise trip to New York City on Tuesday, marking the first time a senior royal has visited the United States since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down.
The Princess Royal, 72, took on the Big Apple like a true New Yorker by sailing the Staten Island Ferry.
The NYC Department of Transportation tweeted a photo of Anne standing in the wheelhouse of the ferry looking through the windows with Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez and another gentleman.
“We were delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness Princess Anne to the #StatenIslandFerry today,” the agency wrote.
The only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II flew Monday from London’s Heathrow Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
She also visited the National Lighthouse Museum in St. George, Staten Island, where she was named an honorary president for the Campaign for Illuminating Future Generations, according to the Staten Island Advance.
“I think lighthouses have been a particularly good way to educate people about the importance of maritime in all its formats,” she told the crowd upon receiving the title at a reception at the View at Battery Park.
“It’s not just about trade, it’s also about the impact of what we do with the sea, and how we can better care for it, and the way it affects our lives,” she added.
Prior to her visit to the neighborhood, Anne spoke Monday at the English-language Union Gala at the Cosmopolitan Club in Manhattan.
Anne’s East Coast tour marks the first time a senior royal has visited America since Harry, 38, and Markle, 41, moved to California following their departure from the royal family in early 2020.
Prince William was originally supposed to fly to Boston and travel to New York for the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in early September, but that trip was canceled after the Queen died on September 8 at the age of 96.
Alienated brothers William, 40, and Harry – as well as their respective wives, Kate Middleton and Markle – reunited to mourn the death of their grandmother. Harry and Markle returned to Montecito, California, on September 20, a day after attending the state funeral.
William and Harry’s relationship came to an end after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sat down for a stellar interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, in which the pair made several claims about royalty, including that Buckingham Palace isn’t the alum ‘Suits’. helped when she started having suicidal thoughts after getting married into the family in May 2018.
Harry and Markle, who is biracial, also claimed that one of his relatives had expressed concern about their son Archie’s skin color and that Middleton, 40, made Markle cry days before her wedding.