[2] Their holidays were spent alternately at the Villa Pianore in Lucca with their paternal grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Parma, or at Bernstorff Palace in Copenhagen with their maternal grandfather.

[3] In November 1947, Anne met Michael I of Romania, who was visiting London for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten.

[5] Anne did not want to accompany her parents to London for the royal wedding as she wished to avoid meeting King Michael in official surroundings.

Instead, she planned to stay behind, go alone to the Paris railway station and, pretending to be a passerby in the crowd, privately observe the king as his entourage escorted him to his London-bound train.

Charmed, the king saw her again the night of the wedding at the Luxembourg embassy soirée, confided in her some of his concerns about the Communist takeover of Romania and fears for his mother's safety, and nicknamed her Nan.

A few days later, Anne accepted an invitation to accompany Michael and his mother when he piloted a Beechcraft aeroplane to take his aunt Princess Irene, Duchess of Aosta, back home to Lausanne.

[3] Although Michael gave her an engagement ring a few days later, he felt obliged to refrain from a public announcement until he informed his government, despite the fact that the press besieged them in anticipation.

Yet within days it was used as the government's public explanation for Michael's sudden abdication, which according to royalty "expert" Marlene A. Eilers Koenig was in fact the king's deposition by the Communists on 30 December.

[5] As a Bourbon, Anne was bound by the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, which required that she receive a dispensation to marry a non-Catholic Christian (Michael was Orthodox).

Helen, Queen Mother of Romania and her sister Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, Duchess of Aosta (an Orthodox married to a Catholic Prince) met with the fiancée's parents in Paris, where the two families resolved to take their case to the Vatican in person.

Anne's paternal uncle, Xavier, Duke of Parma, issued a statement objecting to any marriage conducted against the will of the Pope and the bride's family.

[15][16][17][18] Although the offer to confer a posthumous military medal on her was declined by her family,[19] Romania's President Klaus Iohannis offered condolences to King Michael and the royal family, issuing a statement which described the deceased as devoted to the country whose name she bore, "Her Majesty Queen Ana of Romania will remain forever in memory and in our hearts as one of the most important symbols of wisdom, dignity and, especially, as a model of moral conduct.".

[20] The government of Romania declared that the 13 August 2016 shall be a national day of mourning, during which the Romanian flag when displayed is to fly at half-mast at all institutions and buildings, private, cultural and partisan as well as public, and television and radio broadcasts are to adapt their programming appropriately in memory of Anne of Romania, whose funeral would be conducted that day at the Curtea de Argeș Cathedral.

[22][23][24] In July 2023, to celebrate a century since her birth, the National Bank of Romania launched a 10 Lei silver coin into the numismatic circuit.