Death Stalks Princess Anne’s Ex-Husband Mark Phillips
PRINCESS Anne, equine daughter to Queen Elizabeth, is said to be odds with her horse-enthusiast ex-husband, Mark Phillips (what did he ever see in her?)
The New York Post looks at a story in The New York Times that says that three riders hoping to qualify for the US Olympic equestrian team have died during competitions in the US. Phillips is the team’s coach.
Know that nine more riders worldwide have died over the past year and half. No, not horses, the riders.
The Post says deaths are up “because the sport has become more popular and the jumping courses, some designed by Phillips himself, have become more challenging”.
“Phillips is about to be crucified as the halfwit menace,” says one British journalist.
An “expert” says Phillips has been “eternally despised by Brits for being a grasping, regal wannabe poseur”.
The Post goes on to say: “Aristocrats feel Anne, mother of Peter and Zara, tainted the royal bloodlines with Phillips’ common DNA.”
Horse fans should look out for a faceless figure in a crown riding White Fiat Uno as Phillips rounds the bend and prepares to confront Jump 6: The Tunnel Of No Return…
April 14th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Cut the poor guy some slack, he’s probably still shell shocked from having to screw princess Anne.
She has a face that could drive many men to gayness.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
He was a brave man to ride her in the first place.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
But the more wanna-be Olympians are killed off, the better Zara’s chances at winning both a place and the gold become, no?
No?
May 19th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Don’t bash either Philips or Anne, but the ’system’. I met Philips way back in the early 70’s, at the first Gothenburg horse show. He hated the Royal bit, but was forced to grin and bare it. He preferred his previous anonomous life in the army. Both Harvey Smith and John Whittaker suggested Philips caved in to family pressure to marry Anne. Smith very bruskly, as per his want, suggested Anne only married him because he was the best of a bad bunch of men she was allowed to marry. She was given a list, apparently. Nobody, nobody sane that is, Smith said, wanted to get too close to the Royals, ‘they were bad news’. Marrying one was tantamount to a death sentence. But the families loved it, the Royals paid them well to keep quiet about things they might see and hear. Both Smith and Whittaker looked glum when thinking about Anne. Lovely girl, apparently, when allowed to be herself, but she was forced to live the life of a dog. The somewhat brusk manner she is known for was a symptom of the stress living under ‘the system’, how she stayed sane was a mystery to them. It was telling that when she arrived in Gothenberg she was billetted in another hotel to Philips, and locked in her room. She only ever saw the airport, her hotel room, and the arena. He only saw her at the arena; and could care less, to be honest, he was after a couple of the other horsey girls at the competition. He had to be told to meet Anne at the airport! No TV, no radio, no books, she could only sit there in her room, alone, and look out of the window. The Swedish equestrian TV commentator, Anders Gernant, himself from the Swedish aristocrocy, had to force his way past the security to spend time chatting to her and pushed them aside so he could take her to dinner in the hotel. Ex-Armoured Corps officer, he was a toughie and mighty brave! “She never complains,” he said, “I’ve known her for a year or two and when I bring it up she only says, ‘I’m used to it, it’s always been like this. All my life it’s been like this. I’m a girl, I’m expendable. I should never have been born, only boys count in this family.’ ” Gernant could only shake his head in disgust. I met him again, the day after the show, and he told me they hauled her off her horse, Candlewick, the moment she crossed the line, and she was, still wearing her sweaty showjumping clobber, stuffed on the plane back home. Philips didn’t seem bothered at all, it was Standard Royal Fare, after all, and it gave him free rein with his new girlfriends. Note that Anne has seen to it her kids had a more normal life and have very little to do with the Royals. I think that says it all.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Mark Phillips was not Anne’s first choice. The other chap turned her down. In the 1970s things were very different then regarding marriage, and Mark got sucked in. Anne is an animal lover though, and Mark Phillips was seen kicking a horse in Australia when it did the wrong thing. There was a huge hue and cry about this. He did seem to go off his rocker. And, don’t forget, he has an illegitimate child, but she gets on well with Anne’s kids. She is better off without him.