Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, has largely lived his life away from the glare of royal duty, but his personal life has still drawn its share of public curiosity. In the summer of 2026, Phillips made headlines again when he married NHS nurse Harriet Sperling, a union that marked his second trip down the aisle after a much‑publicised first marriage ended in divorce. This new chapter naturally raises the question: who exactly was his first wife?
The answer is Autumn Kelly, a Canadian management consultant who became the first of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s grandchildren to marry and, later, the first to divorce. Born in Montreal, Quebec, on 3 May 1978, Kelly grew up in a middle‑class Roman Catholic family and graduated from McGill University. Her path crossed with Phillips in 2003 at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, where she was working and he was attending the Formula 1 race. The couple soon began a quiet romance that lasted for five years before their engagement was announced in July 2007.
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How a Canadian Management Consultant Met a Royal
The romance between the elder grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and a commoner from Quebec seemed like a modern fairy tale. However, the engagement brought a constitutional hurdle: Autumn Kelly was a Roman Catholic, and under the Act of Settlement 1701, any Catholic marrying someone in the line of succession would cause that person to lose their place. To avoid this, Kelly made the deeply personal decision to convert to the Church of England, receiving the sacrament of confirmation into the Anglican faith shortly before the wedding.
The ceremony took place on 17 May 2008 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle – the same venue that would later host the weddings of Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie. With 300 guests in attendance, including the late Queen and Prince Philip, the event was a grand but relatively private affair. After the wedding, the couple moved to Hong Kong for a time, where Phillips worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland, before returning to the United Kingdom. They had two daughters: Savannah Anne Kathleen (born 2010) and Isla Elizabeth (born 2012), both of whom became the late Queen’s first great‑grandchildren. Despite the glamour of royal connections, Autumn remained largely out of the spotlight, focusing on her family and her career.
The End of a Royal Marriage
In February 2020, news broke that Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly Phillips had separated after nearly eight years of marriage. The couple released a joint statement describing the decision as “sad but amicable,” emphasising that they would continue to co‑parent their two daughters and that the children’s welfare remained their highest priority. The financial aspects of the divorce were finalised and approved by the High Court on 14 June 2021, formally ending their union.
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After the divorce, Autumn Kelly returned to using her maiden name and began a relationship with Donal Mulryan, a British property developer. She continues to live in Gloucestershire, close to her ex‑husband and their daughters, maintaining a low profile. Meanwhile, Peter Phillips has since remarried, but the legacy of his first marriage to Autumn Kelly remains a quiet, respectful chapter – one that brought two young daughters into the extended royal family and proved that even without a title, a commoner could briefly live a very royal life.
