Princess Anne married her first husband Captain Mark Phillips in 1973, in the first of the Queen’s children’s sumptuous royal weddings. However, their marriage would end in divorce in 1992, in what became the Queen’s ‘annus horribilis’ that also saw the breakdown of Prince Charles and Prince Andrew’s marriages. It was said that although the royal pair met and bonded over their love of horses, they were in fact very different people, and a royal expert revealed how this led to Prince Charles devising a cruel nickname for his sister’s husband.
Speaking on Channel 5’s “The Royal Family: Affairs and Infidelities”, which aired last week, editor of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward explained: “Mark Phillips is a very good looking man, he looked like an Adonis on a horse, and Anne fell in love with him.
“But I don’t really know that Anne really had that much in common with her husband.
“[She was] much brighter than him, much quicker-witted than him.
“He was lovely when he was on a horse, but probably a bit dull when he wasn’t.”
Prince Charles gave Princess Anne's first hisband a cruel nickname, according to a royal expert (Image: Getty)
Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips' royal wedding in 1972 (Image: Getty)
Royal correspondent Richard Kay explained how this led to the cruel nickname from Prince Charles.
He said: “The Royal Family itself were not terribly kind to Mark Phillips.
“It was said to me that Prince Charles christened his brother-in-law ‘Fog’ because he was
