Category: Peter Phillips

Peter Phillips’ engagement thunder was sort of stolen by the Prince and Princess of Wales, correct? Peter announced his engagement to Harriet Sperling on August 1st. The gossip about the engagement and wedding lasted less than a week, then the royalists moved on swiftly to talking about the Sussexes’ Netflix contract and the Waleses’ move to Forest Lodge. In any case, Peter and Harriet are still quite happy, and for the first time in their relationship, Harriet has been invited to Balmoral. She will have to survive the infamous Balmoral Test, where members of the Windsor clan “test” a woman to see if she’s horsey, sporty, outdoorsy and interested in shooting animals. Part of the test is also wardrobe-related – a woman is expected to know how to dress at any given point of the day. To be fair, I think the Balmoral Test is more lowkey these days, especially considering that King Charles doesn’t give a sh-t and he’s probably just staying in Birkhall, not the big house.

Future Royal bride Harriet Sperling is undergoing the “Balmoral Test” after being invited to the Scottish Highlands for the first time. The NHS nurse is set to marry the King’s nephew Peter Phillips, 47, after the royal revealed this summer he had already popped the question after just over a year dating.

Mum-of-one Harriett, 45, has joined the King and Queen in Scotland and has thrown herself into the famous family exam held at Balmoral’s 53,000 acre estate ahead of her Royal wedding. Insiders reveal she had been bonding with Zara Tindall and her children while enjoying rides on trips on electric-powered mountain bikes around the estates. She also joined the royals while horseriding in the estate this week.

Balmoral allows the extended Royal Family to gather for several weeks during August in one of only two times a year along with Christmas that they all enjoy a work-free get-together. The Balmoral Test lives in folklore within royal circles and Princess Diana’s wooing of the late Queen and Prince Philip was immortalised in Netflix show The Crown.

A source said: “Everyone knows Peter is smitten and his family have accepted Harriett into the set up so she will likely pass the infamous Balmoral Test with flying colours.”

[From The Sun]

“…To gather for several weeks during August…” During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, she loved to be in Scotland every summer for at least two months, which allowed the extended family to travel there at their leisure, and it wasn’t some big rush to ensure that everyone was in residence at the same time. Charles only arrived in Balmoral in the middle of August, but it looks like the whole family is there at the same time right now. As for Harriet passing the Balmoral Test… as I said, it’s not as rigid and bum-clenching as it was in QEII’s day. My guess is that the younger royals and royal-adjacents have the run of the big house, and so of course they’re having a nice vacation with little drama.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

A few months ago, I noted that Peter Phillips’ girlfriend Harriet Sperling seemed to have the approval of not just his family, but the British media. There was a sense of togetherness, that everyone was working in tandem to make Harriet happen and give her a big rollout. The only thing surprising about their engagement news last week was that it came together so quickly, roughly 14 months after they started dating. The Mail and other outlets have been raving about Harriet’s style, and they’re already doing big fashion articles with affiliate links. Commenters said that Harriet has been getting free/comped clothes this whole time, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all. I haven’t seen any outlet confirm it though – probably because everyone expects Peter to make deals wherever he can. Speaking of, there’s some chatter about Peter and Harriet’s engagement photos, which Hello Magazine carried exclusively. Meaning, Hello almost definitely paid for those photos. But sources told the Telegraph that Hello didn’t pay for the pics?

In June Harriet Sperling made her royal carriage debut in the procession at Ascot, accompanying Peter Phillips in carriage three. That suggested Sperling, who appears to have slotted naturally into the Firm, had been given the official seal of approval.

Even so, it was a surprise on Friday when she and Phillips announced their betrothal. The news came via Hello! magazine, which published two photographs of the couple (in which Sperling showed off her diamond engagement ring, estimated by one expert to cost at least £10,000) shortly after Phillips and Sperling spoke to the King and Queen.

The choice of magazine prompted reminders of Phillips’s first wedding, in 2008, when he caused controversy by selling the exclusive photographic rights to Hello! for a reported £500,000, allegedly angering the late Queen, who was not consulted in advance.

The pictures marking Phillips and Sperling’s engagement, however, are said to have been taken privately and it is understood that no commercial arrangement was made with Hello! or any other publication.

The couple have yet to announce a date for their wedding. However leading designers will surely be champing at the bit to dress Sperling. She has already won praise for the elegant way in which she mixes high-street brands such as Zara with royal-approved British designers. In her engagement photos, Sperling is wearing a white cheesecloth top and skirt set by Me Em, a home-grown label favoured by the Princess of Wales.

As both an elegant figure, coolly unfazed by public duties, and a hard-working NHS nurse and single mother, Sperling is the ideal fit for a gradually modernising institution. It appears she’s not just a great match for Phillips: she could be the Royal family’s shining new star.

[From The Telegraph]

“She could be the Royal family’s shining new star?” “Unfazed by public duties?” I wasn’t aware that Peter had public duties – he just shows up for fun stuff like Ascot and Wimbledon, and some of the family events. Perhaps they’re talking about the “public duty” of being a royal-adjacent figure for the tabloids to talk about. Anyway, the tabloids are playing nice right now, which speaks volumes about the glamour-vacuum which exists in the Windsor clan right now. I strongly suspect that whoever briefed the Telegraph about the Hello exclusive wasn’t telling the truth. And honestly, why does it matter? Peter doesn’t have a title, he isn’t a working royal, and he’s already been caught monetizing his royal-adjacency many times. “Selling engagement photos to Hello” is a pretty nothingburger scandal.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Hello’s IG.

Ever since Peter Phillips and Autumn Phillips’ divorce was finalized, Peter has been looking for the next Mrs. Phillips. Some men are just like that – always looking for a long-term relationship, if not marriage. Peter spent several years dating two women in succession, and both of those ladies got pretty serious “girlfriend rollouts” in the British press. In the spring of 2024, he began dating Harriet Sperling, a nurse and single mother in her 40s. Harriet also got a big “girlfriend rollout,” the biggest of which happened in June of this year, when Harriet was Peter’s plus-one at several major events. It felt different, like everyone was sizing her up as a would-be princess. And yes, I know Peter doesn’t have a title, but he’s still part of the royal family, and these people are in desperate need of photogenic princesses. Well, good news: Peter proposed and Harriet said yes! They gave/sold the exclusive engagement photos to Hello.

Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling have confirmed their engagement after a year of dating. The couple shared their news on Friday exclusively with HELLO! and released two photos which showed off Harriet’s stunning engagement ring.

A statement issued for the couple by Gerard Franklin, read: “Mr Peter Phillips, the son of HRH The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips and Ms Harriet Sperling, daughter of the late Mr Rupert Sanders and Mrs Mary Sanders of Gloucestershire, have today confirmed their official engagement.

“Both families were informed jointly of the announcement and were delighted with the wonderful news of their engagement. Their Majesties The King and Queen, The Prince and Princess of Wales have been informed of the announcement. No date has been officially set for the wedding.”

Harriet looked gorgeous in the photo, wearing a frilly white top and skirt, while her diamond ring sparkled as she proudly showed it off. She gazed lovingly at her husband-to-be, who wore a plaid top for the occasion.

HELLO’s royal editor, Emily Nash, said: “This is wonderful news for Peter and Harriet, but also the wider royal family. Peter is close to the King and to his cousins and Harriet seems to have been warmly welcomed into the fold.”

Meanwhile, royal photographer James Whatling, who has photographed Peter and Harriet several times, tells HELLO!: “We were waiting for this news. You can’t watch this couple for too long without noticing how close they are, they’re so tactile and they’re clearly so in love. It was only a matter of time.”

[From Hello]

Congrats to them, honestly. I’ve enjoyed Peter’s post-divorce vibe – he’s dated age-appropriate women, and I like that he’s engaged to a single mom with an actual job (nurse). They seem to be really happy. I’ll cover some of the extra stuff separately, because there’s already a fair amount of chatter about when they’ll schedule the wedding and whether or not Prince Harry will be invited, lmao. I mean, part of that discussion is the fact that the left-behinds and the British media are obsessed with the Sussexes and all of them manage to find amazing ways to turn every story into “but what about Harry and Meghan??” It’s also a tad funny that Peter seems to have selected an engagement ring which looks a lot like the ring Harry designed for Meghan.

There’s another aspect to this too – around King Charles’s 2023 coronation, many royalists were lamenting the fact that it would be a good fifteen to twenty years before the Windsors had any big, happy events – weddings, christenings, coronations. Which means that Peter’s second wedding will be pushed as a big “royal” event, because they’re desperate for those, and they’re desperate to have an event which they can say “Harry must be invited, but he’s desperate to come and he hasn’t been invited, what if he turns down the invitation,” etc.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.