Princess laughs off flower incident

Well-wishers offered flowers to the family on Christmas Day

The Princess Royal has joked with well-wishers as they handed her bouquets, almost a week after she was accused of hurting a pensioner's feelings over a floral tribute.

On Christmas Day, Princess Anne took a basket of flowers made by Mary Halfpenny, 75, who had waited for hours outside a church at Sandringham, and said: "What a ridiculous thing to do."

The princess was again offered flowers as she left the same church after this Sunday's service. This time she accepted them with a smile and a wry joke.

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"You are taking a big risk, you know," she told Mary Hallam, 88, from Todmorden, West Yorkshire, as she offered her a bouquet.

"I don't want to upset anyone," she added, accepting a bunch of red roses from 43-year-old Sheila Clark, from Glasgow.

Well-wisher Mary Relph, of Shouldham, Norfolk, who was standing nearby told the princess: "You are doing a great job."

Anne replied: "I wish I could believe that."

Last week a spokesman for the princess apologised for any offence caused to Mrs Halfpenny.

The incident had brought a sour note to the traditional celebration at St Mary Magdalen church on the Sandringham Estate.

'Hurtful' comment

Mrs Halfpenny said at the time: "It was a really hurtful thing to say. I've made baskets of flowers for the Queen and she has always said how nice they are.

"It takes a long time, about three hours, to make a basket of flowers and it costs me about £10.

"I wanted Prince Harry to give the basket to the Queen Mother for me but Princess Anne just snatched it very roughly."

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said later: "The Princess Royal meets thousands of people every year and it is clear that today there has been a misunderstanding of some kind."

The Princess Royal is also said to have told her nieces, Princess Beatrice, 12, and her 10-year-old sister Princess Eugenie, to "get a move on" and not to take flowers from well-wishers.