Peter Phillips is the first grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and was born on November 15, 1977. According to tradition, 41 blank cannon shots were fired from the Tower of London on the day of his birth. He is the eldest son of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips.to whom she was married from 1973 to 1992.
Despite being the eldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth, he was not given a royal title at birth because Princess Anne and Captain Phillips wanted their children to live as normal lives as possible.. His sister, Zara, now married to former England rugby star Mike Tindall, arrived four years later in May 1981. Peter also has two half-sisters, Stephanie Hosier and Felicity Tonkin, from his father.
Peter Phillips was the first grandson of a reigning sovereign born without a peerage in the last 500 years. Raised without official duties, he chose to build an independent career, remaining discreet, while remaining close to the royal family..
A special bond with the Queen
Peter has always had a special relationship with the Queen, so much so that he is considered by some to be “her favorite nephew”.a record shared with Prince Harry. In 2016, in an interview with TelegraphPeter Phillips himself speaks about his relationship with the Queen: “I have always been very close to my grandmother and we speak often. She has been an inspiring person my whole life,” he said.
The Queen’s preference for her nephew is confirmed by one of her “old friends” Daily Mail in 2022: “(The Queen) has always been close to Peter and admires the way he and his sister Zara acted as grandchildren of the monarch but without titles. Like William and Harry and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Peter and Zara were children of separated families, but in some ways they were more exposed due to Anne’s decision not to have titles. She believes that Peter in particular has inherited Anna’s characteristic resilience. He considers him very reliable.”
Peter Phillips, being the eldest nephew, often holds the balance in the very delicate relationships between the cousins.. For example, during Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021, Peter strolled between his cousins William and Harry, trying to show poise at a particularly tense moment for the royal family.
The brilliant career outside the royal family
Like his grandfather, Prince Philip, and his uncles, Peter attended the famous Scottish school of Gordonstoun. Later, after spending time in Australia, he completed a degree in sports science at the University of Exeter, then embarked on a career in marketing, working for Jaguar and later the Williams Racing team, as head of sponsorship, getting closer to the world of motor racing.
In 2005, he left the race for a position at the Royal Bank of Scotland, which also took him to Hong Kong. He is currently CEO of a niche sports management company, SEL UK. Debrett he also indicated that he had “his own sports management company”.
Love at first sight at the Montreal Grand Prix
And he’s at work, it was in 2003, during the Canadian Grand Prix, that he met Autumn Kelly, originally from Montreal. It was in Canada that their love blossomed, made official five years later, on July 28, 2007.
Before the wedding, Autumn Kelly converted from Catholicism to Anglicanism, otherwise Peter would have lost his place in the line of succession to the throne due to the Act of Settlement of 1701. The marriage was celebrated in Windsor, in the chapel of San Giorgio, in 2008. The couple have two daughters, Savannah, born in 2010 – making Elizabeth II a great-grandmother for the first time – and Isla, born two years later.
In 2020, Peter and Autumn announced their separationwhile maintaining a friendly relationship for the sake of their daughters and continuing to live at Gatcombe Park, Princess Anne’s residence in Gloucestershire. The divorce occurred a year and a half later.
A somewhat eventful love life
After the split, Peter found love again with Lindsay Wallace, a former school friend of his sister Zara at Gordonstoun, who was alongside him publicly for the first time at the 2022 Epsom Derby..
But rumors of a romance between Peter and Lindsay first emerged during her visit in March 2021, raising questions over whether she had broken lockdown restrictions.
Eight months later, he showed he was serious about Lindsay Wallace when they attended their nephew Lucas Tindall’s christening together. He then took a very significant step by presenting her to his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who was said to have been “delighted”. The review Tatler reports that Lindsay Wallace was introduced to Her Majesty during a hunting trip to Windsor and the meeting was described as “warm” by a source close to the royal family.
Their breakup was a surprise, for their friends, it was a bolt from the blue, an unexpected decision. It didn’t take long, however, to see Princess Anne’s son happy again with a new girlfriend. For the past few months he has been dating Harriet Sperling, an NHS nurse and freelance writer..
Peter and Harriet made their public debut in May 2024, again at horse races, but this time at the Badminton Horse Trials, before making another public outing at Ascot. Who knows, maybe Harriet isn’t the one.
A controversial advertising appearance
Being part of the royal family but not having institutional roles, Peter Phillips can act freely to activate sources of income, but if he is very admired in terms of his career, he is a little less so for certain choices made a few years ago. In January 2020, he was criticized for his participation in an advertisement in China for the company Bright Food..
The ad campaign drew criticism, with some saying it exploited her status for commercial gain. The case has also reignited the debate over the use of the Windsors’ image for profit, a controversial issue for members of the royal family, as also seen in the case of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
This wasn’t the first time Peter had exploited his position and profited from it: his wedding photos were sold exclusively to the magazine Good morning!for a sum estimated at around £500,000, causing some disappointment even on the part of the Queen.
A modern, independent member of the royal family
When Peter Phillips was born, he was fifth in line to the British throne, he is currently eighteenth.. Her lifestyle and choice to remain low-key represent a new vision of what it means to be part of the British royal family despite lacking official duties. Through his independent and discreet approach, Peter managed to balance respect for family traditions with professional and personal autonomy, creating a brilliant career and becoming an example of modernity within the monarchy.