The Queen felt it would be more difficult if she died at Balmoral. We then all tried to reassure her...

Princess Anne on late mum's fears

- NICOLA METHVEN

QUEEN Elizabeth II needed reassuring that it would be OK if she died at Balmoral, the Princess Royal reveals in a new documentary.

Anne, 73, says her mother was worried about the possibility of passing while she was away from London.

Interviewed for the BBC's Charles III: The Coronation Year, she says: "I think there was a moment when she felt that it would be more difficult if she died at Balmoral.

"And I think we did try to persuade her that shouldn't be part of the decision-making process."

Smiling, she adds: "So I hope she felt that that was right, in the end. Because I think we did.

Elizabeth, the UK's longest-serving monarch, died peacefully at Balmoral, her home in Aberdeenshire, on September 8 last year, aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.

The candid documentary lifts the lid on the first 12 months of her son's reign as King Charles III - including Her Majesty's funeral at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

Anne said she was surprised at her own feelings when jeweller Mark Appleby removed the crown, sceptre and orb before the coffin was lowered into the royal vault.

She said: "When he takes the crown off the coffin, I rather weirdly felt a sense of relief. Somehow, that's it. Finished. That responsibility has been moved on." Watched by family members, the moment was symbolic of the Queen's role passing to her eldest son.

And when it comes to her brother taking on the role of monarch aged 75, Anne said: "I'm not sure anybody can really prepare themselves for that kind of change... not easily.

"And then the change happens and you go, 'OK, I now have to get on with it'.

"Monarchy is a 365-days-a-year occupation, it doesn't stop because you change monarchs."