The end of a Canadian fairytale: Queen Elizabeth's grandson Peter Phillips and wife Autumn to divorce
The fairytale involving a Canadian commoner and a British royal has come to an end with the announcement that Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and his wife will divorce after 12 years of marriage.
Peter Phillips, the eldest of the British monarch’s eight grandchildren, and his wife, Autumn, made the announcement on Tuesday. They had informed the Queen and their family last year, their statement said. The couple, who married in 2008, have two children, Savannah, nine, and Isla, seven.
“They had reached the conclusion that this was the best course of action for their two children and ongoing friendship,” their spokesman said.
“The decision to divorce and share custody came about after many months of discussions and although sad, is an amicable one. The couples’ first priority will remain the continued well being and upbringing of their wonderful daughters Savannah and Isla.”
Buckingham Palace said it had no comment as it was a private matter. The statement said both families were saddened by the news. The couple were last seen in public in September last year, when they attended the annual Highland Games Gathering at Braemar with the Queen and Prince Charles.
Peter, 42, son of Elizabeth’s daughter Princess Anne and 15th-in-line to the throne, and Autumn, 41, met in 2003 at the Montreal Grand Prix, when he worked for the Formula 1 racing team BMW Williams and she worked at the BMW hospitality suite. Autumn grew up in the mostly anglophone Montreal suburb of Pointe Claire, and had graduated from McGill university with a BA in East Asian studies the year before.
The pair reportedly hit it off immediately, though Autumn did not realize that Peter was the Queen’s grandson weeks later, when she saw him on the television. The pair started a long-distance relationship, with him returning to England and her remaining in Montreal.
She joined him in England soon after, and worked as a personal assistant for the broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson. The pair announced their engagement in July 2007 and their marriage marked the first time a Canadian was brought into the royal family.
Autumn was raised a Roman Catholic, but she renounced her faith and became a member of the Church of England before her wedding so that Philip would not have to renounce his claim to the throne.
They were married on May 17, 2008 at the Queen’s Windsor Castle residence near London, the scene for a number of recent royal weddings including that of another of Elizabeth’s grandsons, Prince Harry to his American wife Meghan.
Zara Philips, Peter’s sister, was one of Autumn’s bridesmaids.
Peter and Autumn faced public scrutiny at the time for selling the rights to their wedding to Hello! magazine for a reported 500,000 pounds. The guests were reportedly unaware that photos taken at the event would be published in the magazine. Among the guests were the Queen, Prince Philip, Princess Anne, the Prince of Wales and Camilla, Prince Harry and Kate Middleton, who was dating Prince William at the time. William could not attend as he had already accepted an invitation to the wedding of a friend in Kenya, so he sent Kate to represent him at his cousin’s wedding, an early sign that she would eventually become a permanent member of the royal family.
Three hundred guests attended Peter and Autumn’s spring wedding. Autumn was dressed in a Sassi Holford gown and a tiara borrowed from her mother-in-law, the Princess Royal. She also wore a pearl and diamond necklace from Peter.
“I was frightened of walking down the aisle. But when I got to the top of the stairs and saw how many of our friends and family had turned out to support us, I stopped being scared and actually enjoyed it,” Autumn told Hello!
The Sun newspaper, which first reported the split, said the monarch, 93, would be very upset by the news which comes on the back on a series of major setbacks for the royal family.
Harry and Meghan plunged the Windsors into crisis last month when they announced they wanted to cut back on official duties. That led to a deal which means they will retire as working royals to spend more time in Canada and the United States.
Meanwhile, the Queen’s second son Prince Andrew also stepped down from public duties in November over his connections to sex scandals involving late U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Queen must wonder what she has done to deserve this,” the Sun quoted an unnamed senior royal source as saying.
“Peter Phillips has always been a favourite of hers and Prince Philip and she will be crestfallen by this, especially on top of all the other bad news. It makes you wonder what’s going to happen next.”
Peter was the first of the Queen’s grandchildren to marry and also gave the Queen her first great-grandchild.
Savannah’s birth also marked the first Canadian citizen in line of succession to the British throne. The couple’s children have dual Canadian and British citizenship.
While she came under intense scrutiny at the time of their engagement, Autumn eventually became a well-loved member of the royal family. She is also known to be a favourite of the Queen’s.
Autumn’s parents are Kathleen and Brian Kelly. They divorced when she was eight years old. She has a twin brother, Chris, who is a bricklayer. Her other brother, Kevin, is a chef. The British tabloids made a big deal about Autumn’s humble background at the time, with The Mail on Sunday calling her family “a decidedly different calibre of guests.”
“It is insulting, but you simply can’t let it get to you. Besides, most of it is rubbish,” Autumn told Hello! at the time.
“At the end of the day, my family works for a living. They are not all doctors and lawyers, but I don’t see anything wrong with what my brother, a builder, does. They all have jobs; they support their families and they are nice, normal people. “If someone from a newspaper thinks that is not good enough . . . well, that is their issue, not mine.”
The split comes in the wake of news that Peter had used his royal connections to sell milk in two advertisements for a Chinese state-owned dairy company. Peter, who has never had an HRH title, and tends to stay out of the limelight, appeared in the ads under the caption “British Royal Family member Peter Phillips.”
In the ad, which was reported on by The Sun last month, Peter says: “Bright Dairies has got a fantastic reputation all over China and outside of China as well, for producing high quality dairy products.”
The news raised speculation about what Prince Harry and Meghan might promote now that they are no longer senior members of the royal family.
Reuters, with files from the National Post