ShortHand: Princess Anastasia - The Russian Royal Imposter

Summary

RedHanded: ShortHand – Princess Anastasia: The Russian Royal Imposter

Release Date: March 6, 2026
Hosts: Hannah and her sister / co-host

---

Episode Overview

This ShortHand episode of RedHanded dives into the enduring mystery (and enduring myth) of Princess Anastasia—the supposed survivor of the tragic Romanov family execution in 1918. Hannah and her co-host discuss how Anastasia became a symbol of lost royalty, the string of imposters that emerged (most famously Anna Anderson), and how DNA evidence finally settled the question in the 1990s. With their signature blend of irreverence and insight, the hosts unpack royal gossip, historical cover-ups, and why people are so drawn to stories of "the lost princess."

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Backstory: The Fall of the Romanovs (04:38–08:36)

• Recap of Rasputin’s Influence: The episode gives a quick rundown on Grigori Rasputin's relationship with the Romanovs, focusing on his supposed mystical powers over Tsar Nicholas II’s only son and heir, which gave Rasputin disturbing access to the royal family.
  • “Rasputin, in all of his grubby, lumpy headed glory, was indispensable to the Imperial Russian Royal family, the Romanovs, because he was keeping their only son and heir to the Empire alive.” (04:54–05:08)
• The Russian Revolution: The hosts describe how Tsar Nicholas II's disastrous military decisions and the immense suffering of World War I paved the way for the Bolshevik Revolution, ending the Romanov dynasty and leading to the family’s murder.
  • “The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 swore to end the Russian saga of the super rich and the super poor. And that meant that the Romanovs had to go.” (06:51–07:02)
• The Murder: The royal family was executed in July 1918. Their remains were burned and hidden, which fueled subsequent rumors that not all of the children had died.

The Anastasia Legend Begins (09:05–12:25)

• Missing Bodies, Rising Myths: Due to secrecy, censorship, and the inability to account for all bodies, rumors spread that Princess Anastasia (or Maria, or Olga) survived.
  • “After the murder of the Romanovs under the Bolshevik regime, total state censorship was the name of the game.” (10:11–10:18)
• Why Imposters Emerged: Aside from the allure of lost royalty, rumors of an untouched Romanov fortune incentivized imposters—though the fortune itself was dubious.
  • “Turns out being rich is still something people want, even when they live under Communist regimes. Who’d have thought it?” (12:06–12:09)
• Debunking the Inheritance Myth: The hosts discuss how the so-called ‘fortune’ was likely worthless and would have been seized by the Bolsheviks regardless.
  • “Are you fucking telling me the Bolsheviks wouldn’t take that money anyway the first chance they got?” (15:12–15:17)

Anna Anderson: The Most Famous Pretender (16:13–31:01)

• Anna Anderson’s Emergence: In 1920, a woman pulled from a Berlin canal becomes known as “Miss Unknown” and later claims to be Anastasia.
  • “Anna Anderson was pulled from a canal in Berlin in 1920 and she claimed to have absolutely no idea who she was.” (16:16–16:24)
  • Scarred and traumatized, Anderson attracted both medical and aristocratic attention—some noted her “Russian accent” when she spoke German (17:18–17:27), while others quickly dismissed her as an imposter based on physical discrepancies and inability to converse in Russian.
• Shift from Tatiana to Anastasia: Originally believed by some to resemble Tatiana, Anderson pivots to claiming she’s Anastasia after being told she was too short to be Tatiana.
  • “Miss Unknown started to claim that she was indeed the Princess Anastasia. And she said that she’d cycled through a number of names before settling on Anna Anderson.” (18:15–18:23)
• Her Claims Unravel:
  • Couldn’t answer basic questions about Romanov life
  • Didn’t speak Russian (though the Romanovs spoke English at home)
  • Gained supporters but failed to convince those who actually knew the real Anastasia
  • “Loads of people who actually knew Anastasia go and meet her and they’re like, there is absolutely no way that this woman is Anastasia.” (19:47–19:54)
• A Prolonged Legal Drama:
  • Anderson spent 56 years embroiled in legal battles attempting to claim the Romanov inheritance
  • Even notable figures (like Rachmaninoff) supported her, but nearly all surviving Romanovs and staff dismissed her as delusional or manipulated.
  • “Anna Anderson fought 56 long years to prove that she was the Princess Anastasia.” (20:34–20:43)

Memorable Quotes:

• On the Absurdity of the Romanov Mystery:
  • “The disappearance of the Russian imperial family in 1918 created fertile soil for the sprouting of delusion, fabrication, sham romance, burlesque travesty and humbug, and a long, occasionally colourful, frequently pathetic line of claimants and imposters.” – Robert K. Massie, quoted by Hannah (15:36–15:58)

DNA, The Truth, and Historical Perspective (31:04–41:44)

• DNA Breakthrough:
  • After Anderson’s death in 1984, tissue samples from a surgery, hair saved by her widower, and blood from Romanov relatives (including Prince Philip) were matched in lab tests. By 1994, science confirmed Anderson was actually Franziska Schanzkowska, a missing Polish farm worker.
  • “It was confirmed to be a match for Anna Anderson. 99.99% confirmed. The samples from Anna Anderson were not a match for literally anyone anywhere near the Romanovs. The exclusion rate being 100%.” (33:40–34:36)
• Revisiting Public Fascination and Historical Censorship:
  • Host analysis of why the Anastasia myth endured—state censorship, propaganda, Western pop culture (notably the 1956 movie), and the allure of a princess in hiding.
  • “In the words of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, ‘My telling the truth does not matter because the public simply wants to believe the mystery.’ And she’s right.” (35:25–35:38)
• The Soviet Connection: Lenin allegedly stoked Anderson’s claims to divide Tsarist sympathizers.
  • “Because Lenin wanted to divide the Tsarist supporters… She was like, I have absolutely no interest in this woman actually being Anastasia. I know she’s not, but I'm gonna keep her as a figure to people to direct debate over so they can’t unify and overthrow me.” (36:11–36:32)
• The Enduring Appeal of the Legend: Confirmed by the hosts’ own childhood fascination, frustration on learning the facts, and observations that no similar cases could last in the age of DNA testing.
  • “Confirmation bias waits for no long lost princess. The truth is, the real Grand Duchess Anastasia died that night with her family.” (40:40–40:48)

Final Wrap-Up: Canonization and Last Details (41:06–41:44)

• Romanovs Canonized: The entire family, including Anastasia, were canonized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
  • “The real Grand Duchess Anastasia died that night with her family. She was exhumed and reburied along with the rest of the Romanovs, and they were all canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and proclaimed martyrs in the year 2000.” (40:48–40:56)
• Anastasia Was Never Missing: The bodies were eventually all accounted for—a simple, tragic, and very final end to the story.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dark Humor on Russian History:
  • “It’s like every 50 years they [Russia] decide to get into some horrible… they just love culling all of their young men in a horrible war every 50 years or so. And if you think that sounds crass by me, I’m not the one doing it.” – Co-host (06:23–06:29)
• On Anna Anderson’s Commitment:
  • “No, 56 years this woman tied up the German court system to pretend she was Princess Anastasia.” – Sister / co-host (20:43–20:50)
• Why the Myth Endures:
  • “It’s the same reason that we all misunderstand Rasputin's story. Propaganda and state censorship. For nine decades after the Imperial family were murdered, absolutely no information came out of Russia.” – Hannah (35:43–35:54)
• Science Triumphant:
  • “Science proved that she wasn’t Anastasia in 1994. But Anna Anderson will never know that. I don't think she meant any harm. I think she was very vulnerable and unwell and maybe people were using her to try and make money.” – Hannah (39:40–40:00)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [04:38–08:36] – The Fall of the Romanovs, the Bolshevik Revolution, and state secrecy
• [09:05–12:25] – The emergence of missing princess rumors and opportunistic imposters
• [16:13–31:01] – Anna Anderson’s saga: her claims, rejection by Romanov insiders, and the enduring mystery
• [31:04–34:36] – DNA evidence and final identification of Anna Anderson as Franziska Schanzkowska
• [35:25–36:32] – Why the myth endured: censorship, propaganda, and Western pop culture
• [40:40–41:44] – The final word: the real fates of Anastasia and her family, their canonization

---

Tone and Style

Irreverent, witty, and at times caustic—hosts Hannah and her sister mix robust historical research with personal anecdotes and blunt asides. They skewer both the overblown romance of lost royalty and the persistence of outlandish conspiracy theories, while retaining compassion for the mentally unstable Anna Anderson and skepticism for those who exploited or enabled her.

---

Summary

RedHanded’s ShortHand on Princess Anastasia expertly unpacks the tragic history of the Romanovs, the psychology and politics behind persistent royal imposters, and the sad, somewhat farcical saga of Anna Anderson. With state censorship, propaganda, and wishful thinking fueling the legend for decades, modern DNA science finally laid the myth to rest, proving that Anna Anderson was not a lost princess, but a deeply troubled Polish woman. The episode is a whirlwind tour through the worlds of royal intrigue, historical cover-up, and the persistent public appetite for tales of secret heirs—delivered with the RedHanded team’s signature blend of sarcasm, research, and unsentimental humanity.

Transcript

[Ad Voice 1]

Red Handed is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses. Monetary magicians. These are things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Chime is changing the way people bank. It's not just another banking app. Chime unlocks fee free and smarter banking that's built for you. Not the 1%. Forget overdraft fees, minimum balance fees and monthly fees. Chime turns everyday spending into real rewards and Progress. Features like MyPay give you access to up to $500 of your paycheck anytime and you can even get paid up to two days early. Earn up to 3% APY on your savings, seven times higher than a traditional bank. And the Chime Card is the newest way to unlock safer credit building and cashback all on one card with no annual fees, no interest and no strings attached. My younger self would really have benefited from something like this. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.comredhanded that's Chime.

[Ad Voice 3]

Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services a secured Chime Visa credit card and MyPay line of credit provided by the Bancor Bank NA or Stride Bank NA. MyPay eligibility requirements apply and credit limit ranges $20 to $500. Optional services and products may have fees or charges. See chime.com feesinfo advertised annual percentage yield with Chime+status only. Otherwise 1.0% APY applies. No min balance required. Chime card on time Payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and.

[Hannah]

Hello Hello. Welcome to Shorthand where we are in a race against time because Mabel has the shit because she ate some jalapeno crisps yesterday.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Oh damn.

[Hannah]

So we are. We are living on borrowed time. We're living on a prayer.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I do also enjoy that that microphone that we just moved so I could see your face. Looks like it's down for Mabel to directly just be like excuse me, could you please stop? How do we do the voice thing that seb showed us.

[Hannah]

Oh, I don't know.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Excuse me. Can you please stop telling everybody about my diarrhea problems? Thank you very much, Hannah. I wish I'd got a funnier voice.

[Hannah]

It was still pretty good.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

It was. We've just discovered that the Rodecaster we use as the interface to record in our studio, for some reason, in the

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

upgraded version, they've added in voice effects, so, I don't know.

[Hannah]

Watch out for more of those hours of fun, right?

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Oh, Rasputin needs.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Oh, does he? Actually, he doesn't really say anything.

[Hannah]

Rasputin doesn't know he's long dead by this time.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Never mind.

[Hannah]

But we are kind of revisiting Rasputin. And we just recorded a shorthand on rabies and kept talking about bats. And all I could think about was Bartok in the Anastasia. Is this the face of a bat who would lie to you? I said, aha.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And ahaya.

[Hannah]

And a kicker, sir. Me and my sister used to do it all the time. Stress. It's a killer show.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Everyone who just listened to their first ever episode of Shorthand. I'm so sorry you've stopped listening. I promise you there is good content to come.

[Hannah]

When I worked at the Shaftesbury, the producer of Anastasia the Musical came and had a meeting with my boss, and he was like, oh, this is Hannah. She's my assistant, and she's very upset about the little band. Because in Anastasia the Musical, there's no Bartok and no Rasputin. And he's got the best post Covid.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Everyone just, oh, that was pre Covid.

[Hannah]

Yeah, that was pre Covid. It's no excuse there.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I was gonna say people don't like bats anymore. Except the people who think it didn't come from a bat or whatever.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

I don't know.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

They can't keep up with the noises.

[Hannah]

Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe they were like, oh, I don't know. I feel like something's gonna happen with bats that's gonna be quite globally significant.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I had a dream about how bats are gonna ruin the. Well, to be fair, it's not the bats, it's the fucking ccp. Anyway, let's continue.

[Hannah]

Right, for this week's episode, we are revisiting something that we covered a few months ago on Full Fat Red Handed. This is the shorthand. So if you want the longhand on Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine, I do

[Sister / Co-host 2]

feel like Rasputin longhand is a good name for him.

[Hannah]

Yeah, Rasputin Horse stick longhand, if you want to Listen to the Rasputin story. You can take yourself Back to episode 283 of Red Handed to quench all of your wandering holy man needs, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of what we need to know for this episode, though Rasputin, in all of his grubby, lumpy headed glory, was indispensable to the Imperial Russian Royal family, the Romanovs, because he was keeping their only son and heir to the Empire alive. No one knows how he was doing it, but doing it he was. And that meant that Rasputin had unfettered access to the Royal family, including all of their Grand Duchess daughters.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

And if that's not a red flag, I don't know what is. This Royal family needs some fucking child protection training stat. So anyway, when Rasputin was assassinated by a Bullingdon club boy, the Tsar, the

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Tsarina and their offspring were devastated, but they had a much bigger problem to deal with. In an attempt to convince everyone he

[Sister / Co-host 2]

was a military genius and not a

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

blithering idiot, Tsar Nicholas II had sent the Imperial army to the Eastern front of the First World War. And spoilers. It went fucking horribly.

[Hannah]

Yeah, it doesn't really work out for Nicholas.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

No, no, it doesn't.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

So the Russian army failed to break through the enemy lines and the human cost was unfathomable. Russia, you really just got form for that.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

It's like every 50 years they decide to get into some horrible.

[Hannah]

All of.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

It's like they just love culling all of their young men in a horrible war every 50 years or so. And if you think that sounds crass by me, I'm not the one doing it.

[Hannah]

Yeah, right.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

So, yeah, they failed on an epic level.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And on top of this, it couldn't really get any worse economically on home turf either. The Russian people in their millions had had enough and revolution was in the air.

[Hannah]

The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 swore to end the Russian saga of the super rich and the super poor. And that meant that the Romanovs had to go. Nicholas II was overthrown and he and his family were taken to the Urals and kept under house arrest. And notably not helped at all by the British Royal family, who absolutely could have come to their rescue, but didn't.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

They were related, they're cousins.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah, that's it. That's it, yeah, yeah.

[Hannah]

George V or something.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

They look exactly the fucking same as well.

[Hannah]

Same face. Yeah, they look like twins and they had like summer holidays together.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Hannah]

It's poor form. So the story goes that Lenin, the Bolshevik Leader had originally intended to put the royal family on trial. But whether that's true or whether it's not, the idea didn't last particularly long. On the 17th of July, 1918, the Red army gathered the Tsar, the Tsarina and all of their children in the cellar of their palace prison. And there the Romanovs were shot at. But that didn't kill them, so they were stabbed with bayonets. And the assault lasted at least 20 minutes.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Ugh. Yeah, rough times. I listened to the real dictators, obviously, on Lenin, and in that, I obviously don't know how true this is, because obviously the winner writes history, blah, blah, blah. But they were like, when they take them down there, the Tsarina is, like, furious at being woken up in the middle of the night and being taken down there. And she's like, get me some chairs to sit on because she doesn't want to stand in the cellar. And they're like, bitch, we're going to kill you. Shut up. This is why we're going to kill you. Yeah. I'm not saying it's okay. I'm just saying that's what they said happened.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

So after they were killed, the Tsar, his wife and their five children, all of their bodies were taken into the forest where their remains were burned with acid.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

And then again, just to be doubly sure, because they'd had all that trouble with Rasputin, with fire, and they were

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

buried, their bodies would not be recovered for years. The Romanov women and girls, Tsarina, Alexandra, Maria, Olga, Anastasia and Tatiana, died with amulets containing pitchers of Rasputin.

[Hannah]

Not cool, is it?

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

It's a bit beggy. It's a bit fangirly.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

But before we cast such aspersions on

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

them, did they really? Ever since that night in 1917, many have suspected that although the Tsar did not survive, maybe one of his daughters might have and that she might still be alive.

[Hannah]

In the beginning, no one was really sure which one of the daughters of which there were five, may have survived. Some thought it was Maria, some thought it was Olga, and some thought it might be Anastasia. Poor old Tatiana doesn't seem to have been given the benefit of the doubt by basically anybody.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I would just love that. The reason why they settled on Anastasia was because Disney was like, it's the most marketable name. Yeah, right, we're going to Anastasia Princess Olga. No, we're saving that for a little. What's the little fucking snowman in Frozen? Oleg.

[Hannah]

Olaf.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Olaf. I don't know. We're saving that for a future franchise. We're going to go with Anastasia Tatianna sounds a bit.

[Hannah]

Mm.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Meh. We've done a focus group. It doesn't work.

[Hannah]

Yes. And what we need to make clear at this point before we get into it, after the murder of the Romanovs under the Bolshevik regime, total state censorship was the name of the game. The assassinations of the Imperial family had been carried out in secret and information about the murders were not exactly being broadcast on Russia Today.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Oh, thank God.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Everyone's so free now. Thank God the Tsars are dead. We just have to live under total state censorship. Massive oppression. Sick.

[Hannah]

So after the assassinations, naturally, because they didn't have any real information, people started to draw their own conclusions. And there was a rumour that two of the Romanov's bodies were never found, the little Prince Alexei and one of his sisters. So because there's state censorship and communism, lots of people claimed that they were the missing princess and they would decide which one they were based on whichever one of the grand duchesses they decided was the most easily copyable.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

I see. Though my question is, why would anyone do this? Well, apart from all of us, deep

[Sister / Co-host 2]

down, hoping that we are some sort

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

of long lost princess. Rumour had it that the fortune of the Imperial family had been recovered and was being held in a bank right here in Britain.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Because we went to save the treasure, but not them.

[Hannah]

Yeah. No, fuck the fuck our. Fuck our blood relatives. Honestly, they're like, look, we've got to

[Sister / Co-host 2]

clear the gene pool. They've got to die. We need some fresh blood. We're all dying of inheritance of. We're all dying of hemophilia. And that weird, gross, smelly goatman is dead. So anyway, this fortune is in Britain. People hear about this. So even under a very, like, we're killing royals landscape, people are still like, I'm the princess. Yes.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Because turns out being rich is still something people want, even when they live under Communist regimes. Who'd have thought it?

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And many were certain that these funds, somewhere in the region of $800,000, would be released to anyone who could prove that they were the direct descendant of Tsar Nicholas ii.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

But there were, of course, two problems with this idea. Firstly, the Romanov fortune was basically a bunch of pieces of paper that were worth literally nothing.

[Hannah]

It's literally like an iou.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah, yeah. Just like you open up the chest and it's just like, whoops.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Sauce. This episode is a paid ad by BetterHelp. Let's take a moment to think about the women in our lives. Those who've transformed the way we think,

[Sister / Co-host 2]

behave and see ourselves.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Those who've taken on a serious and often invisible emotional weight to take care of those closest to them. March means International Women's Day. It's a time that celebrates strength and progress, but can also highlight how much is asked of women every day. From supporting loved ones to managing responsibilities that often go unseen, it's easy for emotional well being to get pushed aside. No matter your stage of life or relationship status, therapy can help you check in with yourself, understand what's feeling heavy and build healthier pathways moving forward. With over 30,000 therapists worldwide, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy platforms, Having served over 5 million people globally and it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Your emotional well being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com Redhanded that's better. H-E-L-P.com Redhanded Red handed is brought to

[Ad Voice 1]

you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situation.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Secondly, sure, the immediate Romanovs were wiped

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

out, but there were still fucking loads of Romanovs left. Aunties, uncles, cousins. Absolutely loads of them. So why wouldn't the fortune have gone to them?

[Hannah]

This is very unclear to me. I genuinely think it might just be completely made up. Yeah.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Unless it's just because they're like it would go to his child first and if they couldn't prove that a child was there, it would go to like, somebody else.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

I don't know.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah, because maybe the bodies are missing. So they're like, maybe they're not confirmed dead yet. We have to wait a certain amount of time before we can give it to anybody else.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And also all of this really is a moot point because Are you fucking telling me the Bolsheviks wouldn't take that

[Sister / Co-host 2]

money anyway the first chance they got? Yep.

[Hannah]

So yeah, I don't buy it.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

No.

[Hannah]

Anyway, those minor details didn't stop a whole host of people deciding to give passing themselves off as a Grand duchess a Shot.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

That's probably really fucking boring. They were like, might as well.

[Hannah]

According to Russian historian Robert K Massey, and this is a quote, the disappearance of the Russian imperial family in 1918 created fertile soil for the sprouting of delusion, fabrication, sham romance, burlesque travesty and humbug, and a long, occasionally colourful, frequently pathetic line of claimants and imposters.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I think you should change your hinge profile to the first sentence. Not the disappearance of the imperial Russell family, but just delusion, fabrication, sham romance, burlesque travesty and humbug, and see what happens.

[Hannah]

And of course, the most spoken of, of these quote unquote pathetic claimants was a woman who went by the name Anna Anderson. She is the most famous Grand Duchess Pretender by quite some way. Anna Anderson was pulled from a canal in Berlin in 1920 and she claimed to have absolutely no idea who she was. She had jumped from the Bendlestrasse Bridge in an attempt to end her life. She refused to identify herself and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital as Fraulein Bundbekont, which means Miss Unknown. I know, that's my hint. Profile.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

That could be your burlesque name, your

[Sister / Co-host 2]

sham burlesque name for romance and travesty.

[Hannah]

Don't forget the humbug. Miss Unknown's head and body were covered in scars and she would later claim that those scars were from the bayonets of the Red army on the night that her family were murdered.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Do you escape with your scars if someone bayonets you?

[Hannah]

She says. Way more batshit star.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

We don't have time to stop here.

[Hannah]

Interestingly, records show that Miss Unknown did speak German, but according to hospital staff, she did so with a Russian accent.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Dun, dun, Dun. So in 1922, another patient at the institution started making all sorts of noise about Miss Unknown being the Grand Duchess Tatiana. This claim caught some attention, so much so that a former lady in waiting to the Royal Family came to visit Miss Unknown to see if there was any truth behind this claim. But the lady in waiting was disappointed

[Sister / Co-host 2]

when she realised immediately that Miss Unknown

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

was far too short to be the

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Grand Duchess Tatiana, who she had known for many years.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And this lady in waiting told Miss

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Unknown as much before she left.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And Miss Unknown replied, I did not say I was Tatiana.

[Hannah]

I have a lot of horrible things to say about Anna Anderson, but she has a fantastic understanding of drama.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then Miss Unknown started to claim

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

that she was indeed the Princess Anastasia. And she said that she'd cycled through

[Sister / Co-host 2]

a number of names before Settling on Anna Anderson. And I do have to say, Anna Anderson fits better with her being Anastasia.

[Hannah]

Totally. She went by Anna Tchaikovsky for a while.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

No, exotic, I know. Well, not there, I guess. Well, maybe in Germany.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Yeah. So this is what she said about the night that the Tsar and his family died. All of the royal family had body doubles and they were the ones who had been shot.

[Hannah]

There are so many problems with her story that I just can't even. I can't even deal with it. Anyway, so she claimed that she was saved by a soldier that night in the Urals and carried out of Russia on the back of a cart a la Mother Courage and made her an escape to Berlin. Interestingly, Anna Anderson didn't speak Russian. Odd for a Romanoff, one would think. However, Nicholas and Alexandra spoke English to each other.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Oh, yes, of course.

[Hannah]

And maybe it was a bit too low brown to speak Russian. I don't know. I'm not defending Anna Anderson, I'm just making the point. Her claims get even more odd. Anna Anderson was completely unable to answer specific questions about the daily life of the imperial family, which would put most people off. But nevertheless, she did gain a gaggle of supporters who stayed by her side all the way through the German court system in her attempts to claim the Tsarist fortune that actually didn't really exist. Most famously, the composer Rachmaninoff paid for Anna Anderson to stay in various hotels.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

What evidence has she presented?

[Hannah]

None. Literally none. It's so fascinating because as we'll go on to talk about, loads of people who actually knew Anastasia go and meet her and they're like, there is absolutely no way that this woman is Anastasia. But because of them not being able to prove where the bodies are and the Iron Curtain and blah, blah, blah, blah, it's just this, like, mystery, you know, and people love it. Yeah.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

And that's the thing that we have to, like, make very clear, just in case it isn't very, very obvious. This doesn't happen like years and years later. Like, this doesn't happen like this old woman is claiming to be Anastasia.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

This is at the time where there

[Sister / Co-host 2]

are people who knew the royal family. Like the fucking maid in waiting who comes in is like, no, it's not her. Yeah.

[Hannah]

And like you can literally go and look at side by side photo comparisons. She looks nothing the fuck like her

[Sister / Co-host 2]

been bayoneted, haven't I?

[Hannah]

Yeah, I know how insensitive I've been. So, yes, Anna Anderson fought 56 long years to prove that she was the Princess anastasia.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

No, no, 56 years this woman tied up the German court system to pretend she was Princess Anastasia.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

No.

[Hannah]

And interestingly, because literally every European royal is related, it turned out that the lawyer composing the case against Anderson's claim was fonded by none other than Big Pedo Lord Mountbatten.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

We should do a shorthand on how much of a pedo Mountbatten.

[Hannah]

Yeah, we should.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

So eventually, the courts ruled that they could neither prove nor disprove Anna Anderson's true identity.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Now, that wasn't enough for her to get her hands on any money, if it existed at all.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Now, Anderson had a whole host of

[Sister / Co-host 2]

mental and physical ill health throughout her

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

tragic life, but she never once relented, even in the face of people who knew the real life Anastasia being entirely unconvinced that she was the real deal. If she thought that being the Princess

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Anastasia and not just plain old Anna Anderson would make her life any better,

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

then sadly, she was tragically wrong, because basically no one believed her.

[Hannah]

It's so interesting. I actually felt quite disappointed doing the research for this because I've always been obsessed with Anastasia. Like, it's such a good story and then the second you look into it, you're like, oh, yeah, complete and utter bollocks. Literally nobody believed her.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Hannah]

Notably, Michael Romanoff did not believe her. He was the Prince of Russia, but was born in Versailles for some reason. And he was born the year that Anna Anderson was pulled from the water in Berlin. And he actually grew up at Frogmore. That Harry and Meghan would get their knickers in a twist about 100 years later. Oh, I know, it's funny, isn't it?

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Hannah]

Michael has this to say about Anna Anderson. From the very beginning of the affair, it was obvious to my family that Anna Anderson was an imposter and that there were dubious people and motives behind her claims. Most of the Russian aristocracy thought that Anna Anderson had been trained and put up to the impersonation by people who wanted the Tsar's money that didn't exist.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

The only thing I would say there is whoever's done this hasn't invested a lot of time or effort because she's not very good at it. No, she isn't.

[Hannah]

And Michael Romanoff was not the only one who thought Anna Anderson was full of shit. Grand Duchess Olga, not the Princess, the youngest sister of Nicholas II travelled to meet Anna Anderson in 1925. And although she felt very sorry for her because Anna Anderson was clearly extremely unwell, Duchess Olga was not convinced at all that she was the Princess Anastasia. Anastasia had actually been the Grand Duchess's favourite goddaughter and niece. Had she lived, Anastasia would have been 24 in 1925. And the Grand Duchess thought that Anderson looked much older than that. Even if you made allowances for sustained

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

ill health, she looked totally different to Anastasia. And Anderson also looked angry whenever she was asked questions that the real Princess would have known answers to.

[Hannah]

She just gets, like, annoyed by people not believing her, which, when you're trying to convince someone, is not really what

[Sister / Co-host 2]

you should be doing. No, I mean, if you haven't got the answer, it's a choice, but obviously not one that works very well, because, yes, no one believes her.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And, yes, this tendency to get annoyed

[Sister / Co-host 2]

when she was questioned about things is quite well documented. In fact, Anderson had quite some trouble controlling her temper, especially when she lived in New York with some of her supporters.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Apparently, she would go into rages, some so extreme that she killed her pet bird and even ran around naked on the roof of a building because she

[Sister / Co-host 2]

was so pissed off.

[Hannah]

She's just not very well. I think that's.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

No, I think that's the clear message here. She's not very well.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

I think the fact that she's not

[Sister / Co-host 2]

very well in saying she's Princess Anastasia is one thing.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

The fact that she gets as much

[Sister / Co-host 2]

airtime and she gets as many people who are connected to the Royal family to come and see her is the part that's shocking because she has no proof, because she's not Princess Anastasia.

[Hannah]

She really doesn't help herself. Anderson was shown photos of the Romanov family and apparently her eyes showed literally not a flicker of recognition. This is why I think she's ill rather than, like, nefarious in any way, because she's not pretending, she just is reacting to the situation in the way that she thinks she should. And this is interesting. The Grand Duchess Olga also brought a little icon of St. Nicholas with her to Berlin. And would you like to guess what St. Nicholas is? The patron saint of?

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Vodka?

[Hannah]

No. He is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and students.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Oh, that's nice. Yeah.

[Hannah]

And In Russian Orthodoxy, St. Nicholas is also the patron saint of the wrongfully convicted, or perhaps in this case, the wrongfully convinced.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Very good.

[Hannah]

Thank you.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

This episode is a paid ad by BetterHelp. Let's take a moment to think about the women in our lives. Those who've transformed the way we think, behave and see ourselves, those who've taken on a serious and often invisible emotional weight to take care of those closest to them. March means International Women's Day. It's a time that celebrates strength and progress, but can also highlight how much is asked of women every day. From supporting loved ones to managing responsibilities that often go unseen, it's easy for emotional well being to get pushed aside. No matter your stage of life or relationship status, therapy can help you check in with yourself, understand what's feeling heavy and build healthier pathways moving forward. With over 30,000 therapists worldwide, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy platforms Having served over 5 million people globally and it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Your emotional well being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% [e-mail] Redhanded that's betterhelp.com Redhanded Red handed is brought

[Ad Voice 1]

to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Not available in all states or situations. Chime is changing the way people bank. It's not just another banking app. Chime unlocks fee free and smarter banking that's built for you. Not the 1%. Forget overdraft fees, minimum balance fees and monthly fees. Chime turns everyday spending into real rewards and Progress. Features like MyPay give you access to up to $500 of your paycheck anytime and you can even get paid up to two days early. Earn up to 3% APY on your savings, seven times higher than a traditional bank. And the Chime card is the newest way to unlock safer credit building and cashback all on one card with no annual fees, no interest and no strings attached. My younger self would really have benefited from something like this. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank Join the millions who are already banking fee free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.comredhanded that's chime.com redhanded Chime

[Ad Voice 3]

is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services a secured Chime Visa credit card and MyPay line of credit provided by the Bancor Bank NA or Stride Bank NA. MyPay eligibility requirements apply and credit limit ranges $20 to $500. Optional services and products may have fees or charges. See chime.com fees advertised annual percentage yield with Chime+status only. Otherwise 1.00% APY applies. No min balance required. Chime card on time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

These days I'm all about quality over quantity. Buy nice over buy twice. I've had way too many of my clothes wear out after less than a year of wearing them.

[Ad Voice 1]

So now if it's not well made

[Sister / Co-host 2]

and versatile, it's not coming in.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

That's honestly why I love quints. The fabrics feel elevated, the cuts are thoughtful, and crucially, the pricing actually makes sense. Quince makes high quality wardrobe staples using premium fabrics like 100% European linen, 100% silk and organic cotton poplin. These are versatile, well made pieces that make getting dressed simple without paying some crazy markup. Quince works directly with safe, ethical factories and cuts out the middleman. So you're not paying for the brand or for fancy retail stores. You're just paying for quality clothing right now. Go to quince.comredhanded for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will. Now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to Q U I n c e.com Red handed for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Redhanded

[Hannah]

Sir Nicholas was somewhat of a mascot for the Romanov clan. So when Anna Anderson seemed totally unfazed by the little statue, that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Olga was concerned. And then Anderson really sealed her fate when she claimed that a scar on her finger was from a footman crushing her hand in a carriage door when she was a child. And the Grand Duchess Olga did recall something like that did happen. But it happened to Maria. And it wasn't a carriage that crushed her finger. It was the Imperial Train.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Ouch.

[Hannah]

Possibly a door of the Imperial Train.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Okay,

[Hannah]

so it seemed to the Grand Duchess Olga that Anna Anderson had been told a convoluted version of the Maria train story by someone who'd heard about it and then repeated it for authenticity. But she was wrong.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

But the Grand Duchess didn't hold anything

[Sister / Co-host 2]

against Anna Anderson, whoever she really was. It was obvious again that this woman

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

was very Unwell, she didn't think Anderson

[Sister / Co-host 2]

was a willful impostor, just a woman trapped in her own world.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And the Grand Duchess left Berlin with

[Sister / Co-host 2]

all hope extinguished, according to her.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

And Olga isn't the only one. Charles Gibbs, who had been a tutor to the Imperial Children, claims that there is not a shadow of doubt on the matter. They are all dead. He traveled to Kattenberg the year after the mass assassination to witness an investigation into the deaths. This involved months of toil and swishing around the contents of a deep mine shaft. And according to Gibbs, quote, all who

[Sister / Co-host 2]

actually took part in the investigation and

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

inspected the remains were obliged to abandon

[Sister / Co-host 2]

hope that anyone survived.

[Hannah]

But they don't tell anyone. So everyone in the country is convinced that two of them are missing. They were never missing. They were never, ever missing. Yeah, but still, Anna Anderson was relentless. And as a part of legal proceedings against her, a private investigation was launched into Anna Anderson by the Russian royals. They didn't think she was Anastasia, but they had no idea who she really was. The investigation soon had the answer. We're gonna blue ball you with that one, just because I feel like it. There are a lot of things about Anna Anderson that we will just never understand. She lived out the rest of her life between Germany and the us, staying with supporters where she could and eventually settling in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she got married and was known about town for having a completely unreasonable amount of dogs. And it was in Charlottesville that Ms. Unknown died on 4 February 1984, after 56 years of slogging through the courts attempting to claim what many said was a non existent fortune.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

When Anna Anderson died, it seemed that the answer to who she really was died with her. But it didn't. DNA testing didn't exist when Anna died, but it wasn't far off. Years before her death, Anna Anderson had surgery at Martha Jefferson Hospital. And some tissue was taken from her bowel. And by some miracle, they had kept it. Meanwhile, out east, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former Soviet Union was spilling all sorts of beans. Information was freely flowing for the first time past the Iron Curtain. And it was confirmed in the 90s that the body of Prince Alexei was found and that the body found next to him was was that of a female between 18 to 23, around the age that Anastasia would have been. In short, like Hannah said, Anastasia was never missing. Her and her brother Alexei were just buried in a slightly different location to

[Sister / Co-host 2]

the rest of their family.

[Hannah]

Back in Virginia, several strands of Anderson's hair were found inside a book belonging to her husband. Mitochondrial DNA from that hair not only matched the bowel tissue that had been biopsied in the 70s. It was a match for a young Polish woman who had gone missing the year Anna Anderson was pulled out of the canal in Berlin. And that woman's name was Franziska Schankauska. Anna Andersen was Franziska Schandkowska. This was proven by a DNA test in 1994. Blood was taken from Gertrude Schankowska, who was Franziska's sister, and it was confirmed to be a match for Anna Anderson. 99.99% confirmed. The samples from Anna Anderson were not a match for literally anyone anywhere near the Romanovs. The exclusion rate being 100%. And we know that because Prince Philip himself gave blood to test against Anna Anderson's DNA side by side.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Photographic comparisons have, of course, been made up by Anna's supporters and by her enemies.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

But to be honest, her supporters probably shouldn't have bothered. Like we said, Anderson just didn't look anything like Anastasia.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

But she did look a whole hell

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

of a lot like the missing girl, Franziska, because, well, that's who she was.

[Hannah]

And I also think, like, the hospital staff saying that she spoke German with a Russian accent. She spoke it with a Polish accent. They just didn't know the difference.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah, because she can't speak Russian. That's the thing that stood out the most. It was like, how do you speak Russian? It's like a Luigi in the Simpsons. It's like, I never have pizza. And they're like, do you speak Italian? And like, I only speak a broken English. It's like, so she speaks German with a Russian accent, but she can't speak Russian. Okay. She does speak Polish, though.

[Hannah]

In the words of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, my telling the truth does not matter because the public simply wants to believe the mystery. And she's right. But why do we love it so much? Essentially, it's the same reason that we all misunderstand Rasputin's story. Propaganda and state censorship. For nine decades after the Imperial family were murdered, absolutely no information came out of Russia. So even if the Soviet government did know the truth, that all the bodies were there and Anastasia was never missing, they weren't going to tell the west that they had famines to orchestrate. In fact, Lenin himself kept a file on Anna Anderson and he supported her financially and otherwise.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

That's weird. What's the motive for why they did it?

[Hannah]

Because Lenin wanted to divide the Tsarist supporters because it was like, A divide and conquer thing. She was like, I have absolutely no interest in this woman actually being Anastasia. I know she's not, but I'm gonna keep her as a figure to people to direct debate over so they can't unify and overthrow me.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Hannah]

Because if a movement can't agree with each other, they're very rarely going to move forward. And then, of course, There was the 20th Century Fox box office hit Anastasia film, for which Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar in 1956.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Oh, was it not Disney?

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Oh, whoops. My whole joke earlier, the film was

[Hannah]

completely inaccurate, but it did certainly fuel Anna Anderson's claims on the world stage. And if you haven't listened to the Rasputin episode, the whole reason we have that warning at the beginning of films that, like, they bear no resemblance to people, alive or dead. That warning was invented for a film about Rasputin, but we still believe it all anyway.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

So will we see more Anna Andersons? Probably not.

[Hannah]

Apart from Madeleine.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Yeah, whatever happened to that?

[Hannah]

I mean, I think they were just like, do you want to do a DNA test? And she was like, I don't exist, I've disappeared.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Oh, dear.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

I think it might be similar.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I think it might be that they did do the DNA test, but then they just didn't publish any reports because I think they were like, she's not very well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's no point publishing that she's not Madeleine because she's just going to get loads of hate on the Internet. So, yeah, basically, probably not. Anna managed the entire charade for so long because she was incredibly mentally unstable and nobody could DNA test her. That, of course, is no longer the case. It would be much more difficult for somebody to pull something like this off

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

today when we use DNA testing for

[Sister / Co-host 2]

literally everything and killers are being caught by things like ancestry.com though if ancestry.com

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

you do want to sponsor the show, I do know that you do not put your data into publicly searchable databases.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

But anyway, in the face of the scientific evidence, there is almost no one who could still back Anna Anderson's claims. And some claim that there is more to the Francisca Shanskonauske sure claim than one may think.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

How, for example, would an uneducated girl from Poland speak English?

[Sister / Co-host 2]

That was going to be my main question. Because when Anna Anderson is in hospital, she's obviously not speaking Russian because she can't speak Russian. And like you said, she keeps the Polish speaking to herself.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

But how come she can speak English?

[Hannah]

That's one of the Big things that her supporters are like. Well, it's impossible for her to speak English, but she does. She doesn't speak Russian, but I think it's one of those things you just have to sort of like, chalk up to. Yeah, we'll never know exactly.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

It could just be because, look, Anne

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Anderson wasn't very well, but she wasn't a stupid person.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

She knew enough to not speak Polish when she was in this Berlin hospital, when she was pretending to be Princess Anastasia. She could have just been one of those people that's like a linguophile who learned English. She didn't learn Russian, but she probably was surrounded by more people speaking English. I don't know. I don't feel like that is the thing that makes it a big suspicious situation.

[Hannah]

Some people claim that Franziska was a regular at Berlin hospitals, psychiatric and otherwise. So if she was Anna Anderson, wouldn't the police have recognized her?

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I mean, come on, it was a pretty rough time for Germany. I don't think they were like, Weimar Republic. Yeah. I don't think the police were really particularly big on looking for missing Polish people in Berlin hospitals. Yeah.

[Hannah]

Doesn't hold water. And even those who believe that Anderson really was Anastasia rarely argue about it anymore, because, after all, she's dead. But she was, without a shadow of a doubt, Franziska Szanikowska, a Polish farm girl born on 16 December 1896 in Poland. Science proved that she wasn't Anastasia in 1994. But Anna Anderson will never know that. I don't think she meant any harm. I think she was very vulnerable and unwell and maybe people were using her to try and make money. Maybe people just wanted in on the fun. Rasputin's daughter, Maria, of all people, was an Anderson fan for a while, so some people who could be considered legitimate were on her side at some point. Although Maria Rasputin changes her mind, like, fairly quickly after she supported her. So, yeah, Anna Anderson, I don't think a bad person. I think very unwell. And confirmation bias waits for no long lost princess. The truth is, the real Grand Duchess Anastasia died that night with her family. She was exhumed and reburied along with the rest of the Romanovs, and they were all canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and proclaimed martyrs in the year 2000. Wow.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I didn't know that.

[Hannah]

No, I didn't either. There's a website about Nicholas II that's like, King something else saint. And I was like, what? And then I was, oh, no, he is a saint. They sainted him.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

He was a shit king.

[Hannah]

Yeah. Terrible.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah. That's why he got him and his entire family murdered. So anyway, that's Princess Anastasia.

[Hannah]

It's such a shame, isn't it? But she's long dead.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yeah.

[Hannah]

She was never missing. Her and Alexei were just buried in a slightly different place.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Because they killed so many of them. They were like, I'm sure this hole will be big enough. Oh, no, it's not. Yeah. Buried the other two over there. That's literally it.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

What about these Rasputin lockets? Necklaces?

[Hannah]

Yes.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Did they really have them?

[Hannah]

Oh, yes, they did.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Oh, okay. It was like. But did they?

[Hannah]

Yes. No, they did.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Yes, they did. Okay, great.

[Hannah]

They did.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

I was waiting the whole time to find out.

[Hannah]

They definitely did.

[Sister / Co-host 2]

Okay, well, that's it, guys. We hope you enjoyed this week's shorthand. Stay tuned for more and we'll see you next time.

[Hannah]

Hooray.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Bye.

[Shopify Ad Voice]

When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want.

[Ad Voice 2 / Co-host 1]

Like, all the way.

[Shopify Ad Voice]

Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha chings from every channel right in one spot. And turn real time reporting into big time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today.

[Blinds.com Ad Voice]

Thirty years ago, blinds.com broke the mold and made custom window treatments easy for everyone. Over 25 million windows later, we're celebrating by giving our customers up to 50% off site wide during our anniversary sale. Whether you DIY it or want a pro to handle everything from measure to install, blinds.com has you covered. Shop online, access real design professionals and get free samples. Thank you for 30amazing years. Shop the anniversary sale now through March 11th. And get up to 50% off site

[Hannah]

[e-mail] so you're running out of closet space.

[The RealReal Ad Voice]

The good news? You don't need to stop shopping. You just need to start selling with the RealReal. The RealReal is the world's largest and most trusted resource for authenticated luxury resale. Whether it's that mini bag that can't even fit your phone or those boots you never fully broke in, the RealReal handles everything from photography and copywriting to shipping and pricing. So you can just sit back, get paid, and make room for things that actually feel like you. And with 10,000 new arrivals every single day from top designers like Prada, Celine, Louis Vuitton and Loewe, all for up to 90% off retail, you're bound to find something perfectly on brand to fill that extra closet space with. Plus, right now you can get an extra $100 to shop when you sell for the first time. Make room for what feels like you go to therealreal.com to start selling and get your extra $100 to keep [e-mail] that's therealreal.com terms apply.