The ring Peter Phillips chose for his new fiancée, Harriet Sperling, has touching ties to his late grandmother.
Royal fans were abuzz when Queen Elizabeth’s eldest grandchild announced last Friday that he and his NHS nurse girlfriend were set to be married.
Harriet’s stunning sparkler was designed by the same jeweller behind Queen Elizabeth’s 1946 engagement ring, reported Hello! magazine.
Peter popped the question with the ring from Mayfair jeweller Pragnall, which is not only one of the top luxury jewellery outlets in the world, but also boasts many connections to the royal family over the past 90 years.
Before starting his own company, George Pragnall personally tended to Queen Mary‘s jewellery needs from 1930 until her death.
He was also often instructed to entertain the then-Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret as their grandmother browsed jewels on display.
As Pragnall’s acclaim rose, he acquired companies, including Philip Antrobus, who Prince Philip had enlisted to create Elizabeth’s 1946 engagement ring.
When the soon-to-be-queen walked down the aisle, a year later, she matched the three-carat round diamond engagement ring with an Antrobus bracelet.
The bracelet was commissioned by Philip and made from antique diamonds taken from a tiara that once belonged to his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.
The touching tribute comes as no surprise, as Peter has long been suspected as the Queen’s ‘favourite grandchild’ and he has previously spoken highly of his ‘remarkable’ grandmother.
‘She was a figurehead that had been part of everybody’s lives for as long as people could remember, ‘ he told Sky News Australia in 2024.
‘Having her as a grandmother and a role model was unique.’
Speculation has been swirling about the details of Peter and Harriet’s upcoming wedding since their engagement announcement.
The couple, who had been dating for less than two years, have both been married before, leading some to question whether their nuptials may look slightly different to what the nation is accustomed to when it comes to royalty.
Princess Anne’s son was previously married to Autumn Kelly for 12 years, with whom he shares two daughters, Savannah, 14, and Isla, 13. Harriet, 45, meanwhile, has a daughter, Georgina, 13, from her first marriage to a fitness instructor.
Former royal butler, Grant Harrold, believes that the couple won’t be held back by royal protocol like King Charles and Queen Camilla once were because it is ‘very different times’ now.
Grant told Femail: ‘Historically, yes, royal weddings, if you’re divorced and you got married again, it was always a much more low-key affair.’
He said: ‘I still think [Peter’s] will be an all-white wedding. I think he’ll still want to do things even though he’s the divorcee. I still think it will be a full-blown white wedding affair. I think it’s very different times, so they can either go for a low-key or a high profile. It’ll be entirely up to them at the time.’
Royal expert Phil Dampier told Femail that it is likely Harriet and Peter won’t be held back by royal protocols like Camilla and Charles were.
He said: ‘I think Peter Phillips’ wedding will be fairly low key, but not because he is divorced. After all the first marriages of the King, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew all ended in divorce as well, so the stigma that there was in the 50s is no longer there.
‘Peter Phillips is not a working royal, so he can pretty much do what he wants.
‘I’m sure senior royals will be invited and will attend, but we probably won’t see any big parade or carriage procession.
‘He is well down the pecking order in the line of succession, and so it will be very much done as he and his fiancée want.
‘In that sense, it won’t be very different from his first wedding. Ironically, his first wife switched from being a Catholic to the Church of England so that he wouldn’t lose his place in the line of succession, but the rules have now been changed and he is so far down to be irrelevant now.’
On May 17, 2008, Peter tied the knot with Autumn in a lavish affair at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle – the same venue where Meghan and Harry said, ‘I do’.
The former couple got engaged in July of 2007 and then married five years after meeting at the Montreal Grand Prix.
Peter was the first of the Queen’s grandchildren to tie the knot – making it a very special occasion.
There were 300 guests at the wedding, including 70 of the Canadian-born bride’s family as well as a number of British royals.
Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Princess Beatrice, and now-Queen Camilla were all there, as well as Princess Anne and Princess Eugenie, who read Shakespeare’s sonnet 116 at the ceremony.
Prince Harry was in attendance with then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy and while Prince William was notably absent as he was in Kenya for a friend’s wedding, but Kate was there to represent him.
Peter’s sister Zara Philips was bridesmaid in a sage-green Vera Wang gown while his half sister Stephanie, then 11, was one of the flower girls.
Princess Anne lent the bride a sparkling tiara for her special day, and Autumn also donned a pearl and diamond necklace gifted to her by Peter the evening before.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds and their guests flocked to the chapel’s stairs to pose for photos and wave to fans.
From there, Peter and Autumn boarded an open, horse-pulled carriage to their reception at Frogmore House, a 17th-century country estate offered to them for use by the Queen and Prince Phillip.
At Frogmore House, the family gathered for a portrait before heading to the party, where guests danced the night away.
Peter and Autumn cut their three-tiered wedding cake with a sword belonging to Captain Mark Phillips, and an usher’s girlfriend was the one who caught the bouquet.
Peter and Harriet’s nuptials will be the first major British royal wedding since Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip passed away.
The royal couple would usually have played a major role in any ceremony – and in the years before their deaths, attended the weddings of their grandchildren, including Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and Prince Harry.
The photographs at the time, which were signed with HELLO! Magazine, included remarkably candid shots of the royals, including images of the family laughing and one photo of Prince Harry giving his grandmother, Elizabeth II, a peck on the cheek.
However, senior members of the family – including the late Queen – were allegedly less than impressed and felt blindsided by the publication of the pictures.
Buckingham Palace released a statement shortly afterwards claiming that the deal was a ‘serious error of judgement’.
Peter was long said to have been the late Queen’s ‘favourite grandson’ – so it’s likely a tribute to his grandmother could be on the cards, especially at an event where she would have no doubt played a major role.
Discussing what the upcoming nuptials could look like, royal expert Ingrid Steward told FEMAIL: ‘When Anne married Tim in 1992 – they married in Scotland partly as the Church of England wouldn’t remarry divorcees in church and partly to keep it low key and private.
‘Things have changed, although the church of England and therefore its priests firmly believe marriage should be for life. Peter could get married anywhere he liked with the agreement of the priest, but I suspect he will want it to be relatively private to protect Harriet from the onslaught of social media criticism, which is inevitable.’
She added that Peter was the late Queen’s first grandchild, and he ‘remained very much a favourite’.
As a result, she said she is ‘sure the private chapel at Windsor Castle would be made available for him. Or the Royal Chapel of All Saints, by Royal Lodge at Windsor or in his bride’s local church’.
‘He could also get married in a Registry Office,’ Ingrid concluded. ‘The rules of the past no longer apply, but having a lavish, expensive wedding like Harry and Meghan’s would be unlikely.’
Meanwhile, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams added: ‘There was a long-standing prejudice against divorce in the royal family because of the monarch’s position as Head of the Church of England.
‘Since 2002, the Church of England has permitted marriage in church for those who have been divorced, even if their former spouse is still living, in certain circumstances.’
He added that it ‘has not been forgotten that Edward VIII abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, who was twice divorced’.
Richard continued: ‘Princess Margaret’s relationship with Group Captain Peter Townsend was especially complicated because he was divorced, which conflicted with church doctrine at the time.
‘It would be fair to comment that royal divorce is allowed but not exactly encouraged. However, three of the late Queen’s four children have been divorced.
‘King Charles himself famously divorced Princess Diana in 1996 and remarried Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony in 2005, which was thought more appropriate, despite the change in the law in 2002 regarding church weddings for divorcees.’
Summing up the relationship between the newly engaged couple, Richard said: ‘Peter is divorced from Autumn Kelly, from whom he has two children, Savannah and Isla. Harriet Sperling is an NHS paediatrician and freelance writer who is also a single mother with a daughter, Georgia, which reflects contemporary Britain rather well.
‘She is also reportedly devout. They have been dating for a year, and her appearance at Royal Ascot was seen as a pointer to an engagement. One thing, however, will not happen again.
‘When Peter Phillips married Autumn Kelly in 2008, the exclusive rights were sold to Hello! Magazine for a reported £500,000 without consulting Queen Elizabeth. This was NOT appropriate.’
