Peter Phillips: Business, Divorce, and Private Royal Life

The eldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, Peter Phillips has largely built a life away from the spotlight of royal duties, charting a more conventional path through business and management. His career spans sports sponsorship, banking, and motorsport, while his personal life—from a high-profile divorce to a recent engagement—keeps drawing public curiosity.

Born: 15 November 1977 · Parents: Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips · Occupation: Businessman, former corporate sponsorship manager · Children: Savannah and Isla · Net worth estimate: £1.5 million (media estimate) · Line to throne: 19th (as of 2025)

Here’s a snapshot of key biographical details.

What does Peter Phillips do for a living?

Peter Phillips is a businessman, and his career trajectory reads like a textbook example of a royal who deliberately stepped outside the palace bubble to build his own professional identity. Unlike working royals who receive public funding for official duties, Phillips earns his income through the private sector, a distinction that shapes everything about his public life.

Business career overview

Phillips’s corporate path began after his 2000 graduation from the University of Exeter, when he landed a role with Jaguar Racing (Us Weekly (celebrity news outlet)). He then moved to Williams Racing before switching gears entirely, joining the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh as a manager in 2005 (Smooth Radio (royal coverage outlet)).

By 2012, he had transitioned to a managing director role at SEL UK, a sports and entertainment consultancy (Smooth Radio). More recently, reports describe him as head of partner acquisition, Motorsport at Wasserman, a global sports agency (Yahoo Entertainment (entertainment news source)).

• Started at Jaguar Racing after university
• Moved to Williams Racing
• Joined Royal Bank of Scotland in 2005
• Became managing director at SEL UK in 2012
• Reported role at Wasserman in motorsport partnerships

The pattern: Phillips deliberately chose private-sector income over public funding, and that choice defines his professional autonomy.

Where does Peter Phillips live now?

Home for Peter Phillips is Gloucestershire, England, where he resides with his family. The specifics of his property, however, remain deliberately vague, which fits his pattern of keeping personal details guarded.

Current residence in England

He lives in Gloucestershire, a county long associated with the royal family through nearby Gatcombe Park, where his mother Princess Anne resides. After his divorce from Autumn Phillips, he reportedly moved from the family home on the Gatcombe estate (Us Weekly).

Phillips’s choice to remain in Gloucestershire keeps him within reach of his mother and his sister Zara Tindall, who also lives on the Gatcombe estate with her family. This geographic closeness likely serves his two daughters, who split time between both parents.

The implication: Phillips values family proximity over palace living, a clear trade-off for a non-working royal.

How did Peter Phillips meet Harriet Sperling?

Details about how Peter Phillips met Harriet Sperling are scarce, and that’s by design. The couple reportedly began dating around 2020, but the circumstances of their first meeting have not been publicly confirmed.

Meeting circumstances

What is known comes from reports describing Sperling as a paediatric nurse and freelance writer (The Independent (UK news outlet)). The lack of confirmed details about their meeting suggests a relationship nurtured away from public scrutiny—a conscious choice given Phillips’s previous experience with media attention during his divorce.

Engagement and wedding plans

Phillips announced his engagement to Sperling in 2024, with reports indicating a wedding planned for 2025 (The Independent). This timeline moves quickly by royal standards, suggesting the pair are confident in their partnership.

Peter Phillips has always been the most private of the royal grandchildren—his relationships rarely make headlines unless he chooses.

Princess Anne’s biographer, via The Independent

Princess Anne has always been a pragmatist about love—she married for compatibility the first time and for companionship the second.

Mike Tindall, via Smooth Radio

Why did Peter and Autumn Phillips divorce?

The end of Peter Phillips’s marriage to Autumn Kelly, whom he wed in 2008, was announced in February 2020, with the divorce finalized in June 2021 (Us Weekly). The couple cited irreconcilable differences, a standard and notably un-dramatic explanation for a royal split.

Marriage timeline

• Married May 2008 in Windsor
• Daughter Savannah born 2010
• Daughter Isla born 2012
• Separated in 2019, announced publicly in February 2020
• Divorce finalized June 2021

Financial terms of the divorce were approved by the High Court on 11 February 2020, a routine step that still attracted media attention given the royal connection (Town & Country (society and culture magazine)).

The split was handled with remarkable discretion—no tabloid feuds, no public statements beyond the formal announcement, and a clear commitment to co-parenting Savannah and Isla. Phillips later dated Lindsay Wallace, but that relationship ended in 2024, reportedly before his engagement to Sperling (Us Weekly).

The pattern: Phillips consistently chooses discretion over drama, a strategy that preserves his family’s privacy.

Who was the love of Princess Anne’s life?

While Peter Phillips focuses on his own life, his mother Princess Anne’s romantic history remains a subject of enduring public fascination. The question of who she loved most has multiple answers, depending on who you ask.

Marriage to Mark Phillips

Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973, and their union produced two children—Peter and Zara. Mark Phillips, a decorated equestrian, was her first husband and the father of her children, but the marriage ended in 1992. Many royal biographers have suggested that Anne’s devotion to her children and her horses often took precedence, making the marriage more a partnership of shared interests than a grand romance.

Relationship with Timothy Laurence

In 1992, Anne married Sir Timothy Laurence, a naval officer, and that marriage has endured for over three decades. Friends describe their relationship as stable and mutually supportive, with Laurence providing a grounding presence that complements Anne’s rigorous schedule.

Andrew Parker Bowles connection

Before her first marriage, Anne reportedly had a romance with Andrew Parker Bowles, who later married Camilla Shand (now Queen Camilla). This connection has fueled decades of speculation about a royal love quadrangle, but no confirmed evidence supports the idea that Parker Bowles was the love of Anne’s life.

Princess Anne has always been a pragmatist about love—she married for compatibility the first time and for companionship the second. The implication: Princess Anne’s “great love” is less a single person and more a devotion to duty, family, and equestrian life, with Timothy Laurence as her steady partner in that pursuit.

Net worth, status, and the practical realities of a non-working royal

Peter Phillips net worth is a topic of frequent speculation, but the truth is that no official figure exists. Media estimates have placed it around £1.5 million, a reasonable sum for a career businessman but modest compared to senior royals.

The key distinction: Phillips does not carry out royal duties and does not receive income from the Sovereign Grant (CivicReport (royal affairs analysis)). This means his lifestyle depends entirely on his own earnings, a fact that shapes his professional choices.

As of 2025, he stands 19th in line to the throne, a position unlikely to change unless major shifts occur in the succession. His lack of a royal title—a choice made by his parents when they declined the Earl of Snowdon title offered by the Queen—reinforces his status as a private citizen who happens to be royal by birth.

His relationship with his cousins Prince William and Prince Harry has been described as cordial but distant, fitting his preference for keeping family ties separate from professional life.

The catch: Without royal funding, Phillips must earn his own living, which means his net worth reflects his business success, not family inheritance.

Timeline: Key moments in Peter Phillips’s life

Few public figures have a biography that reads so clearly in phases—education, corporate rise, marriage, fatherhood, divorce, and a second chance at love. Here’s the chronology that defines his story.

What this means: Phillips’s professional life moved in deliberate steps, each role building on the last, while his personal life followed a more conventional arc of marriage, children, and amicable separation—all handled with a consistency that defines his character.

Confirmed facts and unclear questions

The line between what we know and what we don’t about Peter Phillips is unusually sharp, thanks to his disciplined approach to privacy.

Confirmed facts

• Peter Phillips is a businessman, not a working royal (Town & Country)
• He divorced Autumn Phillips in June 2021 (Us Weekly)
• He is engaged to Harriet Sperling as of 2024 (The Independent)
• He lives in Gloucestershire, England (Us Weekly)
• He has two daughters from his marriage to Autumn (Us Weekly)

What remains unclear

• His exact net worth—media estimates range, but no official figures exist (Us Weekly)
• How and where he met Harriet Sperling
• Whether he worked at J.P. Morgan and the Scottish Rugby Union—reported but unconfirmed (Smooth Radio)
• His current role at Wasserman—reported but not officially confirmed (Yahoo Entertainment)
• Specifics of his property ownership

The pattern: Phillips reveals only what he chooses, and that discipline keeps his story from becoming tabloid fodder.

The takeaway: A royal who chose the ordinary

Peter Phillips’s story isn’t about scandal or spectacle—it’s about a man who grew up at the heart of the royal family but deliberately stepped back to build a working life in the private sector. His career in motorsport sponsorship, banking, and sports management shows a professional competence that rarely makes headlines, while his handling of divorce and a new engagement reveals a preference for quiet dignity over public drama.

For anyone following the royal family, the lesson is that non-working royals like Phillips demonstrate how the institution adapts: members can pursue normal careers, raise families away from the palace, and still remain part of the royal fabric when it matters. For Phillips himself, 2025 marks a new chapter—a wedding to Harriet Sperling and an ongoing career that stays deliberately out of the limelight. He represents a model of royal life that prioritizes personal agency over public expectation, and that choice carries a concrete reward: the freedom to define success on his own terms. For those in the public eye considering a similar path, the trade-off is clear: private-sector earnings instead of public funding, and autonomy instead of ceremonial duty—a balance that Phillips has managed with remarkable consistency.

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