Princess's children in 60th birthday tribute

ZARA and Peter Phillips have paid tribute to the Princess Royal's role as a mother in an interview to mark her 60th birthday.

In a revealing exchange, her daughter Zara said: "I look at her and just think if I was going to be a mother that's what I would want to be like. I would like to be as good a mother as she has been to us."

Anne's son, Peter, added: "Her advice about life has been invaluable. Whenever we may have got slightly above our station she'd be the first one to bring us back down to earth fairly hard."

Anne, who represented Great Britain at the 1976 Montreal Games and was elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1988, told a BBC show last night to mark her birthday that she had high hopes for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

She said "You only have to go round the site to see what it's been able to do. That's a hell of a legacy just to begin with, never mind the sports legacy that might come afterwards. But we would be foolish to think an Olympic Games would change people's habits overnight.

"But I do think it raises many more sports in people's conscious thought as options for interest and enthusiasm."

The Princess turns 60 on Sunday.