Mark Anthony Peter Phillips was born on 22 September 1948 and is an English Olympic gold medal-winning horseman for Great Britain and the first husband of Anne, Princess Royal, with whom he has two children.
14 Facts About Mark Phillips
2.
Mark Anthony Peter Phillips was born on 22 September 1948.
3.
Mark Phillips is the son of Major Peter William Garside Phillips, MC and Anne Patricia Phillips ; they married in 1946.
4.
Mark Phillips was substantively promoted to captain in July 1975, and retired from the Army on 30 March 1978.
5.
Mark Phillips was a reserve member of the British equestrian team for the 1968 Olympics.
6.
Mark Phillips was part of the British three-day event teams that won a world title in 1970, a European title in 1971, and Olympic gold medals in 1972; individually, he finished in 35th place in 1972.
7.
At the 1988 Olympics, his horse sustained a pulled muscle and could not complete the individual three-day event, but Mark Phillips won a silver medal with the British team.
8.
Mark Phillips was a four-time champion at the Badminton Horse Trials, in 1971 and 1972 on Great Ovation, in 1974 on Colombus, and in 1981 on Lincoln.
9.
In 1998 Mark Phillips designed the cross-country venue for the Red Hills Horse Trials, a qualifying event for the Olympics located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States.
10.
Mark Phillips remains a leading figure in British equestrian circles and serves as Chef d'Equipe of the United States Eventing Team.
11.
Mark Phillips first met his future wife Princess Anne at a party for horse lovers in 1968.
12.
In 1991, a DNA test confirmed that Mark Phillips had fathered a girl, Felicity Tonkin, born in August 1985 in New Zealand to art teacher Heather Tonkin.
13.
On 1 February 1997, Mark Phillips married Sandy Pflueger, an American Olympic dressage rider.
14.
Mark Phillips grew up at Aston Farm, Gatcombe Park, close to the family of Princess Anne, and served as a bridesmaid at the wedding of her half-sister Zara Tindall.