Updated

Updated · Tatler · Jun 7

Mark Phillips Attends Peter Phillips Wedding with Rumoured Partner Florence Standaert, 4 Years After First Sighting

Updated

Updated · Tatler · Jun 7

Mark Phillips Attends Peter Phillips Wedding with Rumoured Partner Florence Standaert, 4 Years After First Sighting

Q: What does Harry and Meghan's reported wedding snub reveal about the current state of the royal family?

It points to a royal family that remains divided, with personal estrangement still shaping private family occasions as much as public duties. Reports that Prince Harry and Meghan were not invited to Peter Phillips’ wedding suggest the rupture that followed their exit from royal life and move to the United States has not healed in any meaningful way. Harry was once said to be close to Phillips, so their absence from a small family wedding is notable not simply as a scheduling issue, but as a sign that trust and day-to-day family ties remain weak. The guest list underlines that divide. Senior royals including King Charles, Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Anne, Zara Tindall and the Edinburghs are expected, reinforcing the cohesion of the core family around private milestones. By contrast, Harry and Meghan’s reported exclusion suggests they remain outside that inner circle, socially as well as institutionally. At the same time, the wedding itself reflects a monarchy that is modernizing in some respects while staying guarded in others. Phillips’ remarriage in a Church of England ceremony would once have been highly sensitive for the royal family, yet it is now being handled as a low-key, accepted family event. That contrast is telling: the institution appears more flexible on issues like divorce, but far less able to repair the personal fallout from the Sussex split. So the reported snub reveals a family that is functioning, but not fully reconciled.

3 articles · Updated · Tatler · Jun 7

Mark Phillips joined son Peter Phillips’ wedding to Harriet Sperling in Gloucestershire alongside rumoured girlfriend Florence Standaert, adding a fresh personal note to the royal family gathering.
Standaert, a Belgian equestrian, has been linked to Phillips since they were spotted together at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in 2022 and later appeared at Badminton Horse Trials.
The pairing reflects Phillips’ long ties to the horse world: Standaert previously ran Belgium’s Waregem event, where Phillips designed a cross-country course in 2020.
The wedding also underscored Phillips’ continued cordial ties with Princess Anne and the wider royal family despite their 1992 divorce, with senior royals including King Charles III and Prince William attending.