As far as royals with a roving eye go, Princess Anne’s ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips was among the most notorious. 

Soon after the Olympic gold medallist married the late Queen’s only daughter Anne, their relationship was plagued by infidelity on both sides, including Capt Phillips’s ‘semi-public’ affairs that deeply concerned Palace aides and courtiers. 

While Captain Phillips was still married to Anne – who has since found love with Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence – he allegedly had a relationship with ‘society call girl’ Pamela Bordes, a Canadian public relations executive and with an anchorwoman from a British television show. 

The royal marriage broke down irretrievably after it emerged Capt Phillips, now 77,  had fathered a love child with an art teacher from New Zealand in 1991. 

For years, the father of Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips seemed unlikely to ever settle down – that is, until he met Florence Standaert. 

The Belgian equestrian, who is nearly 30 years Capt Phillips’s junior – and closer to his daughter Zara’s age – beamed as she accompanied him to Peter’s wedding in the Cotswolds last weekend. 

While neither Florence nor Capt Phillips has officially confirmed their relationship, her presence at the All Saints Church in Kemble will undoubtedly be a big step forward; the high-profile nuptials were attended by every senior royal – barring estranged Prince Harry. 

Soon after the Olympic gold medallist married the late Queen’s only daughter Anne, their relationship was saddled by infidelity on both sides

For years, the father of Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips seemed unlikely to ever settle down – that is, until, he met Florence Standaert

Florence’s long-term boyfriend, Thomas Ryckewaert, ran the Waregem horse trials in Belgium until his death in 2019. A year later, Mark designed a cross-country course at Waregem, run by Florence.

They weren’t linked together until 2022 when Capt Phillips and Florence, now 42, were pictured at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials together, where Mark’s equestrian daughter Zara was competing. 

‘She’s his new girlfriend,’ a source at the event in Lincolnshire told The Daily Mail, with the pair apparently ‘inseparable’ at the occasion.

Four years on, it appears they are still going strong after Florence accompanied the former Scots Guard officer to the royal wedding in Gloucestershire. 

It is a far cry from Capt Phillips’ more colourful past, including a one-night stand that caused a royal scandal.  

Phillips first crossed paths with art teacher Heather Tonkin in 1983 when she attended a riding clinic he held in New Zealand.

The following year, they had a one-night stand in an Auckland hotel room while Phillips was still married to the Princess Royal. 

Ms Tonkin has previously said she was ‘infatuated’ with the princess’s equestrian former husband, and her diary entry for that night was filled with kisses formed into the shape of a horseshoe.

The following month, she discovered she was pregnant, but when she rang the captain at his marital home, Gatcombe Park, he reportedly urged her to get an abortion, she claimed. She decided to have the baby alone, and Felicity was born in August 1985.

Later, however, Ms Tonkin decided to seek financial support for her daughter, and Captain Phillips secretly paid her £6,000-a-year maintenance for the next five years, which he wrote off as an ‘equestrian consultancy’.

However, when payments became erratic, and the Captain apparently refused to be named on his daughter’s birth certificate, Ms Tonkin engaged lawyers and, in 1991, finally spoke in public. The result was a furore.

Phillips and Anne had separated by then, but courtiers grew increasingly alarmed at the damaging effect the scandal might have on a monarchy already reeling from stories of marital discord between Charles, then the Prince of Wales, and Princess Diana.

Defending her decision to make the matter public and threaten Phillips with court action, Ms Tonkin said in an interview in 1991: ‘I am doing what I am doing for my child. I hope and pray Mark will do the right thing and make a proper and legally binding settlement for her.

‘I wish I could wake up one morning in the knowledge that the record had been put straight and I don’t have to worry any more.’

Ms Tonkin, who was 32 when she fell for Captain Phillips, said: ‘Nothing can compensate for the tears I have cried while trying to plan for [Felicity’s] future, when at any moment I could find myself penniless.’ 

It was all the more embarrassing for the Royal Family when it emerged that one of the Captain’s aides had tried to force Heather’s silence about her one-night stand and the birth of Felicity. 

Ms Tonkin, after taking advice from her lawyers, had taped five phone calls with Phillips’s business agent, during which he dismissed her concerns and threatened to sue her if she tried to put his name on the birth certificate. 

In one recording, the agent can be heard saying: ‘If you want to cause a flap, everyone’s just going to deny it.’

He warned her that the ‘clout’ lay with Phillips and added: ‘When this thing hits the fan, your daughter’s life will be ruined.’

Instead of a formal agreement, the agent referred to a ‘gentleman’s agreement’, offering the so-called consultancy fees, an arrangement Ms Tonkin referred to as ‘hush money’ – and even this stalled when Felicity reached school age.

During the 1991 interview, Ms Tonkin revealed that her daughter, known throughout her childhood as Bunny, believed her father was dead at the time after she lied to Felicity on the advice of one of Phillips’s aides. 

It was only when Felicity was eight years old and conducting a school project on her family history that Ms Tonkin revealed the truth and showed her daughter a biography of Mark Phillips written by newsreader Angela Rippon.

Not that it did much to comfort Felicity, who had learned that her father wanted nothing to do with her and would never send her a birthday card or enquire about her health.

A DNA test in 1991 confirmed Capt Phillips as her father, paving the way for a reported £350,000 settlement – money which helped pay for fees at one of Auckland’s finest private schools and some profitable property investments to secure Felicity’s future.

The agreement also barred Ms Tonkin from ever again publicly associating her name or Felicity’s with the ex-Olympian, who has never openly acknowledged his daughter.

In 1999, it emerged that Ms Tonkin and Felicity had been within 15 yards of the Captain at a three-day event where he was the course designer and they were spectators. The Captain had appeared oblivious to their presence and, when asked by a journalist if he would meet them, had brusquely replied: ‘Wrong subject.’

Felicity, now 40, loves horses like her half-sister Zara and works as a specialist equine vet. 

However, it is thought that she has had little to no contact with either Zara or Peter Phillips  – who, in stark contrast, has been described as ‘the best big brother’ by his other half-sibling Stephanie. 

While Stephanie attended Peter’s wedding with NHS nurse Harriet Sperling at All Saints Church in Kemble, Gloucestershire, last weekend, Felicity was conspicuously absent.  

Felicity also wasn’t present at Zara’s nuptials to Mike Tindall in 2011, nor was she seen at Peter’s first wedding to Autumn Kelly in 2008. 

Knowing the royal wedding would turn the spotlight on her, Felicity reportedly discussed the possibility of sharing ‘my side of the story’ at the time. 

‘But I’m not sure there’s much point. I don’t want to create bother for them and I like my life quiet. I just like getting on with it,’ she confided to a friend.

At the time, her grandmother, Dr Shirley Tonkin, told the Daily Mail that, far from travelling to the UK for the wedding, Felicity wouldn’t even be watching the ceremony on TV. 

Capt Phillips’ married Hawaiian dressage rider Sandy Pfleuger in 1997 after his and Anne’s divorce was finalised 

She said: ‘Zara has never been in touch with her – nobody has. She’s very happy leading her own life, so I don’t think they’ll be watching – they didn’t even watch William and Kate’s wedding.’

She is married to accomplished polo player Tristan Wade, who has previously played in front of the late Queen and Prince Philip at Windsor.  

The couple share a son, called James, thought to be around nine years old, and at one point lived in a ten-acre, £1.5million property with a string of horses near Felicity’s childhood home, where her mother Heather lives.

Relatively little is known about Sandy Pflueger, Hawaiian-born heiress and Capt Phillips’s second wife. 

Sandy, who was part of the US dressage team at the 1984 Olympics, was married to Mark from 1997 until 2012, when Capt Phillips’s affair with another, much younger American equestrian caused a scandal. 

Shortly after, Capt Phillips – who was Chef d’Equipe for the US eventing team at the time, told the Telegraph he was moving out of the home he shared with Sandy on Princess Anne’s Gatcombe Estate and relocating to Florida to be with his mistress. 

A statement confirming their divorce was later issued and read: ‘Captain and Mrs Mark Phillips are separating and divorce proceedings have commenced.

The couple have a daughter, aged 14, and the care and support of her is Capt Phillips’s main concern at this sensitive time. 

‘Capt Phillips, therefore, requests that all parties respect their privacy in the months ahead.’

The former couple welcomed their only child, daughter Stephanie, shortly after tying the knot, and unlike Felicity, she has remained close with her father’s other family members – including Princess Anne, who attended her wedding to agriculturist William Hosier in 2022. 

Captain Phillips was back in the news in 2012, when news broke that he was leaving Sandy to set up home with a woman 28 years his junior after a year-long romance.

Phillips, then 63,  decided to divorce Sandy after falling for American showjumper, Lauren Hough, then 35. 

The Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English reported that Capt Phillips had already met his new partner’s parents, Charles ‘Champ’ Hough and Linda, several times.

The affair raised eyebrows as Lauren is only five years older than Phillips’ daughter Zara –  and just seven months older than their son Peter. 

However, Lauren was believed to be ‘utterly besotted’ with him.

The relationship sparked a furore within American equestrian circles amid calls for Phillips to resign as manager of the US Olympic eventing team. 

The former couple met when Lauren joined Capt Phillips coaching staff as a strongly-worded editorial on the US Eventing Nation website said he was ‘a good coach’ but called his behaviour ‘morally reprehensible’.

Capt Phillips decided to leave his second wife, Sandy Pflueger after falling for American showjumper Lauren Hough. The ex-couple pictured together in 2012 

Dozens of comments were also posted on The Chronicle of the Horse, the US equivalent of Horse and Hound magazine.

They criticised the relationship in light of Lauren’s position as his assistant on the US eventing team. Users described Capt Phillips as ‘an embarrassment’ and called for him to resign.

At the time, Lauren’s friends said she had been openly living with Capt Phillips at her £300,000 home on the exclusive Palm Beach Polo and Hunt Club in Wellington, Florida.  

‘It was pretty much well known among the equestrian community there that Mark and Lauren were an item,’ one person said. ‘They did not really try to hide it in the last couple of months, but were still very careful not to be photographed together.’ 

A former neighbour said she would often see Capt Phillips’s silver Range Rover parked in the drive of the three-bedroom property, which Lauren sold in March 2012.  

‘He was always very friendly, and we loved his accent,’ she was quoted as saying. ‘I had no idea he was from the Royal Family. We just thought he was part of the horsey set that lives all around here.’

Capt Phillips, meanwhile, reportedly told friends: ‘I might only be alive for another five or ten years, so I might as well be happy’.

After their affair was revealed, Lauren told The Telegraph, ‘I guess I knew it was coming’, adding that they felt it was ‘inevitable’ to confirm their romance publicly. 

She declined to comment when asked whether Captain Phillips should resign from his role on the US national eventing team after critics described his behaviour as ‘reprehensible’ at the time. 

On August 15, 2015, the Daily Mail reported that Phillips’s relationship with Lauren was becoming ‘increasingly serious’ after Lauren was spotted with a diamond sparkler on her ring finger at the Festival of Eventing. 

The jamboree was held at the Gatcombe Park estate owned by Phillips’s first wife, Princess Anne. 

But the wedding never materialised and, by 2022, the Capt Phillips had become ‘inseparable’ from Florence, with the couple still together today,