Princess Anne took 'blinged-up' toilet brush in back of her royal Bentley and I've never heard anything more *her*

Princess Anne is all about practicality, from her choice of outfits to the products that pique her interest. She's also famously got no time for fussing about and so should we really be surprised that she once took a loo brush home in her luxurious Bentley?

I don't think so, and this is apparently what happened in 2018 when the Princess Royal visited the office of homeware brand Joseph Joseph to present them with the Queen's Award for Enterprise for innovation. They'd won it for their Totem Waste Separation & Recycling bin but Anne supposedly dubbed the toilet brushes "fantastic" too.

Speaking recently to the Sunday Times, Richard Joseph (founder alongside his brother Antony) explained, "She was so brilliant. We gave her a blinged-up toilet brush…and talked her through the [design] story, showing all the prototypes."

Although he didn't specify how it was "blinged-up", I can't help wishing there were some kind of sparkles as a nod to their royal guest. He might simply have meant the details were what elevated it and Richard claimed they offered to send the brush to the Palace "thinking it's just going to go into a cupboard".

The Princess Royal had other ideas and reportedly turned down the offer, wanting to take it with her there and then. He alleged, "And then it went in the back of the Bentley. The next week we got an order from the Palace for more."

For all we know, the Royal Family's historic residences are still using Joseph Joseph toilet brushes and the picture accompanying Richard and Antony's interview suggests Anne loved the Flex™ Lite Toilet Brush. This comes with a compact holder to discreetly keep it in, a flexible D-shaped head and anti-drip and anti-clog technology.

It's got everything you could want from a toilet brush and it's hilarious to think one of them made the journey back with the Princess in a royal Bentley. She seemingly recommended the product to the Palace too, if they placed an order for more.

This is all very *Anne* and perhaps she was especially interested in the brush because of the product design element. Back in 2020 she gave an enlightening interview to Vanity Fair and revealed that if she hadn't been a working royal, she might have been an engineer.

"The practicalities of how things work, I think, was always interesting as far as I was concerned," the Princess Royal explained. "But I think it was a little bit early in the sort of scheme of things to have gone down that route."

Even though she never pursued this path herself, she said she's “enjoyed" helping to "encourage more girls to look at engineering as a realistic career". Her father Prince Philip was also interested in how things work. On what would've been his 100th birthday in 2021, she said that it's "probably true" they were so similar.

"I think that's probably true because I think if anything broke, there was always 'have a look at this, see if you can mend it'. We didn't throw things away, I'm that old. We have to re-educate ourselves on the basis of not throwing quite so much away. That often comes from your own family background," the Princess Royal declared.