Julie Andrews won't return for Princess Diaries 3, and her last Genovia song means even more now
Genovia is officially losing its original queen. Julie Andrews has confirmed she will not return as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in Princess Diaries 3. The film's team spent much of last year trying to bring her back, and saying no was difficult, but the 90-year-old actress felt the story could continue without "Granny." As Andrews explained, the next chapter belongs to Princess Mia.
Her decision makes The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement Clarisse's final visit to Genovia. Fans usually remember the mattress surfing and Chris Pine emerging from a fountain, but one scene now carries far more meaning: Clarisse singing "Your Crowning Glory" with Princess Asana, played by Raven-Symoné.
The story behind the performance began seven years before the sequel. In 1997, Andrews underwent a throat operation after developing voice problems while performing Victor/Victoria on Broadway. She expected the procedure to help her sing again. Instead, she came out unable to use the famous four-octave range heard in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Her professional singing career was over, and even her speaking voice had changed.
When director Garry Marshall suggested a musical number for Princess Diaries 2, Andrews hesitated. She worried audiences might see it as a gimmick, and she did not want a forced comeback scene slowing down the film. Her husband, Blake Edwards, encouraged her to consider it. Marshall also promised to remove the entire number if she disliked the finished result.
Andrews finally agreed, but she gave composer Larry Grossman a very exact brief. The melody had to be low, simple and suitable for the five notes she could still sing. Grossman and lyricist Lorraine Feather created "Your Crowning Glory" within a single octave, allowing Andrews to begin by speaking before moving gently into the melody.
Then came the moment no one on set was ready for. Andrews completed the recording on her first take. Music supervisor Dawn Soler later recalled looking around and seeing crew members in tears. The four-octave voice had not returned, but Andrews had found a way to sing with the range still available to her.
The scene never treats her performance like a huge comeback. Clarisse sings during Mia's royal sleepover, after Mia remembers hearing the song as a child. Raven-Symoné joins her, turning the soft opening into a playful duet. Andrews wanted the moment to feel casual, almost as if the women had started singing for fun instead of preparing a major musical number.
Its place in the story feels even more personal now. "Your Crowning Glory" tells every girl she has something special of her own, while Clarisse is preparing Mia to stop following old royal rules and become her own kind of queen. By the end of the film, Mia takes the throne and Clarisse steps aside.
More than twenty years later, Andrews has made the same choice off screen. She had her time in Genovia, and she believes Mia's story should continue without her. Princess Diaries 3 may be missing the woman who taught Mia how to walk, wave and rule, but Clarisse already received a fitting goodbye. She sang with the voice she had left, watched Mia take her place and left Genovia on her own terms.
"Your Crowning Glory" now feels like more than a sweet royal sleepover song. It sounds like Julie Andrews saying goodbye long before anyone knew a goodbye was needed.