King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s coronation was a full family affair, but not all of the members have royal titles.
Take Charles’ nephew Peter Phillips and niece Zara Tindall for example. While their mother Princess Anne—the only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip—has had a royal title attached to her name since birth, the brother-sister duo were not given one when they were born in 1977 and 1981, respectively.
Why? According to Anne, who shares her kids with her first husband Mark Phillips, it was so that she could give them a simpler childhood.
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” she told Vanity Fair in 2020. “So, I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
The unconventional decision led Peter, 45, and Zara, 41, to have fulfilling careers outside of royal duties.
After graduating from the University of Exeter with a sports science degree, Peter worked for Jaguar, Williams Racing and the Royal Bank of Scotland before landing a managing director job at sports and entertainment agency SEL UK in 2012.
Meanwhile, Zara studied at her older brother’s alma mater before pursuing an equestrian career. She won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, where her own mother—an accomplished horse rider herself—was on hand to present the award.
“Her father had been a successful equestrian and won a lot more medals [than I] so you do slightly wonder if having two parents who’ve been in that situation helped,” Anne remarked in her Vanity Fair interview. “Zara was always a natural and it was really a question of whether she felt that was something she really wanted to do, and she did and she was very thorough and applied herself to it.”
The royal added of Zara’s choice in career, “She was quite rightly very successful.”
Peter’s two daughters Savannah, 12 and Isla, 11—who he shares with and his ex-wife Autumn Kelly—do not hold royal titles since he was not given one. The situation is the same for Zara and her husband Mike Tindall’s kids: Mia, 9, Lena, 4, and Lucas, 2.
But despite lacking royal titles, Peter and Zara are still technically in the line to the British throne due to their parentage.
