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Mark Antony Peter Phillips (born 1948), former Olympic gold-medal-winning horseman, was the first husband of Anne, Princess Royal.
Captain Phillips was educated at Marlborough College and
at Sandhurst, following which he
entered the Queen's Dragoon Guards in 1969. In 1972, he was a member of the British three-day event team at the Munich Olympics. They finished the
event in gold medal position. It was through his equestrian activities that he met Princess Anne, and they were married on
November 14, 1973 at Westminster Abbey. It is believed to have been her specific wish that,
contrary to precedent, her husband did not receive a peerage on their marriage.
Two children were born to the couple: Peter (born 1977) and Zara (born 1981). However, rumours of a stormy relationship were rife, and their
home life at Gatcombe Park was
the subject of much unwanted media attention throughout their marriage. It was alleged in the press that the British royal family had nicknamed Captain Phillips "Fog".
Mark Phillips is the father of an illegitimate daughter named Felicity Tonkin (born c. 1985) who lives
in New Zealand. The girl's mother is Heather Tonkin, an art teacher, and
daughter of Dr. Shirley
Tonkin, a renowned expert in Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome [1] . Heather
Tonkin lodged the paternity suit with a court in New Zealand in 1991, and DNA testing later confirmed that Mark Phillips was indeed the father of her child
[2] .
In 1992 Mark Phillips was divorced from Princess Anne. In 1997 he remarried, to a woman named Sandy Pflueger. The couple have a daughter named Stephanie (born 1997).
Mark Phillips remains a leading figure in British equestrian circles.
Reference
- "Phillips faces paternity suit" (The Times, Friday, March 22,
1991)
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