The Truth About Princess Anne's Ex-Husband

Captain Mark Phillips is known by many royal watchers as the first husband of Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth. As shared by Town & Country magazine, Phillips and Anne were married in 1973 after the two, who are both competitive horseback riders, met in the equestrian world. They're mom and dad to their son, Peter, and their daughter, Zara. Their marriage ultimately came to an end in 1992.

Phillips has certainly kept things interesting since his royal split. Per Town & Country, the demise of his marriage was partly due to his own infidelity; while there were rumors that both he and Anne were unfaithful, a DNA test revealed in 1991 that Phillips fathered a child outside of his marriage back in 1985. He wed once again after his first marriage, but that marriage also ended in divorce. Despite those lows, Phillips has also experienced a number of highs, particularly in his professional life.

Like his ex-wife Princess Anne, Mark Phillips has been a passionate equestrian, both personally and professionally, for most of his life. As shared by the official Olympics website, he qualified for the British Olympic team as a reserve in 1968, and in 1970, he was part of the team that won the World Championships in Chicago, Illinois. Phillips made it to the Olympic team for the 1972 games in Germany where he won a gold medal, and he returned to the Olympics in 1988, earning a silver medal.

Despite that perceived success, Country Life has written that Phillips' two Olympic performances were a bit disappointing, even to the man himself. His medals were each earned through the team competition, and the score Phillips earned each time was a "discard score," meaning it was one of the lowest scores earned by a team member. Phillips told the publication that when it comes to his Olympics experience, hindsight is 20/20, explaining, "You have to make your own luck. I didn't perform to expectations at championships and I see that clearly now."

Phillips also added that, in the end, being in the Olympics is about walking away knowing you've given it everything you could have.

As reported by the Express, Mark Phillips put quite a bit of effort into denying that he was daughter Felicity's father for the first few years of her life. Despite all that outward effort, Phillips was also making regular payments of £6,000, or about $8,100 in today's numbers, to Felicity's mother, Heather Tonkin. In fact, Heather only brought her child's paternity to light in 1991 after Phillips stopped sending the payments on time; the New Zealand art teacher later told the Express that she was also motivated because she wanted Phillips to claim his daughter. She said, "My ambition is to get Mark's public acceptance of her and to be able to enter his name on her birth certificate."

While Phillips was finally forced into claiming paternity after that 1991 paternity test (per Express), more recent reports indicate he never really made a point of keeping Felicity, now known as Felicity Wade, close in his life. In 2017, the Daily Mail revealed that Felicity and her husband, Tristan, had welcomed a child of their own, but the publication also noted that it was unlikely the baby would be welcomed by anyone in the Phillips family.

Mark Phillips married his second wife, Sandy Pflueger, in 1997. The two share one daughter, Stephanie Phillips. Gloucester Live noted that Pflueger is also a talented equestrian; she was part of the 1984 Olympic team for the United States, and Hello! magazine shared that Pflueger also coached with Mark Phillips.

Phillips and Pflueger got married at her father's home in Hawaii. The wedding was fairly large, with 100 guests attending (mostly from the United States, Australia, and Britain). At the time of their wedding, Pflueger had already been living in Britain for over two decades.

From what it sounds like, Stephanie Phillips is just as fond of horses as the rest of the family. Bristol Live reported that Stephanie was raised near her older brother and sister, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, on the Gatcombe Park compound. The home was originally a wedding gift to Princess Anne and Mark Phillips. 

The ever-tangled love life of Mark Phillips was back in the news again in 2012 when it was reported that he intended to divorce his second wife, Sandy Pflueger, to be in a relationship with Lauren Hough, a woman nearly 30 years his junior who is also heavily involved in the equestrian world (per Hello! magazine). The relationship between Hough and Phillips sparked additional controversy when it was revealed that Hough began working for Phillips after the two were involved; the fact that Hough came on board as an assistant coach for the U.S. equestrian team drew some ire from fellow professional equestrians.

Hough also has Olympian heritage. She competed for the United States at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and helped Phillips coach the team at the 2012 Games. Her father, Charles, was in the 1952 Olympics, and her mother, Linda, owned her own jumping stable.