Princess Anne and Mark Phillips

Princess Anne and Mark Phillips

On 14 November 1973 (her brother Prince Charles’s 25th birthday), Princess Anne married Mark Phillips, then a Lieutenant in the 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards, at Westminster Abbey, in a ceremony that was televised around the world, with an estimated audience of 100 million. Following the wedding, Anne and her husband lived at Gatcombe Park. By 1989, however, the Princess Royal and Mark Phillips announced their intention to separate, as the marriage had been under strain for a number of years. The couple divorced on 23 April 1992.

It was believed that the Queen had offered Phillips an earldom on his wedding day, as was customary for untitled men marrying into the Royal Family. However, Phillips did not accept the offer. The couple had two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips, and they thus became the first grandchildren of a Sovereign to carry no title, though they are not the first children of a Princess to carry no title: the children of Princess Alexandra, the Queen’s cousin, are also untitled.

Filed under: Royal Weddings

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