When senior members of the British royal family officially represent the Crown in various ceremonies that they usually do so in pairs (ie the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex), but Anne, the Princess Royal, is usually announced alone even if her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence accompanies her. Why is Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence not considered a "working royal"?

Timothy Laurence met Princess Anne, in 1986, when she was still married to her first husband Captain Mark Phillips. Amidst reports of her first marriage breaking apart, 'The Sun' revealed private correspondence between Timothy Laurence and the Princess in 1989. After she obtained divorce from Phillips in 1992, they were married on December 12, 1992, in a Church of Scotland ceremony at Crathie Parish Church, Ballater, near Balmoral. While he did not receive peerage on marriage, he was made a personal aide-de-camp to the Queen in 2008 and a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in June 2011. After marriage, they leased a flat in the Dolphin Square complex in Westminster, but later returned to apartments in Buckingham Palace. They currently have an apartment at St James's Palace.