Princess Anne told photographers to 'naff off' after taking this snap but according to some - this isn't the whole story

Princess Annes 'naff off' rebuke to baying photographers is the stuff of legend. According to many sources, the incident happened after she was photographed falling off her horse in 1982 but since then it's been claimed that the infamous eff you to the paps may have gone very differently - if it even happened at all.

• Princess Anne's 'naff off' to the press photographers is known as one of the few moments the royal publicly lost her cool.
• The iconic rebuke is up there with that one time she sassed a potential kidnapper and her unforgettable stint on a reality TV game show.
• In other royal news, We'd never imagine King Charles giving off James Bond vibes but this shirtless beach shot proves otherwise.

As Prince Harry recently reminded the general public, the Royal Family's motto is, "don't complain, don't explain," and as the most popular royal shows - keeping schtum is the best policy. That being said even Princess Anne, despite being known for her stiff upper lip persona, has lost her cool with photographers in her lifetime.

Unsurprisingly for the former Olympian and passionate horsewoman, it was a photo of a rather unfortunate tumble during a competition that's believed to have ticked her off. The image in question sees the Princess falling off her horse at the water jump during the cross-country equestrian event at the Badminton Horse Trials back in 1982.

Discussing the incident on a 2002 documentary titled The Real Princess Anne, Steve Wood, one of the photographers that faced the wrath of the Princess Royal, spilled the beans. Steve was, at the time, the royal photographer for the Daily Express. “It’s the naff off picture," he explained, "when she lost it and told me to naff off, and that created a storm.”

Per the Daily Express, his colleague Ashley Walton revealed a slightly different version of events that may actually be more shocking. “The truth is, we made up the ‘naff’ word to cover up another word," he admitted. “I think that might have been in the conversation, but there were a lot of other ‘f off’ words at the time.”

Her tough, no-nonsense attitude went so far as standing up for herself during seriously dangerous situations. Back in 1974, during an attempted kidnapping, it's alleged that the Princess was having absolutely none of it. Having shot both her protection officer and driver, the would-be kidnapper is alleged to have said, "I want £2M, will you get out of the car?" 

Princess Anne's hilarious reaction was detailed in The Secret Royals: Spying and the Crown, from Victoria to Diana. The book alleges that HRH simply responded, "not bloody likely, and I haven’t got £2M." She then argued with the man for a period of time as he shot randomly at onlookers who tried to find out what on earth was going on. Needless to say - the kidnapping wasn't a success.