The grandson of Queen Elizabeth, Peter Phillips, and his wife Autumn have separated and are going to divorce, announced Tuesday the Palace, new episode in the hectic saga of the British royal family.
At 42, the Queen's oldest grandson and his Canadian wife will share custody of their two daughters. They will nevertheless both live in the county of Gloucestershire, in the south-west of the country, said the spokesman for the Palace.
The announcement of this divorce comes a few weeks after the thunderclap of the Megxit, which saw Prince Harry, cousin of Peter Phillips, and his wife Meghan Markle renounce their status within the British monarchy, and leave to settle in Canada.
The event also follows the disgrace of Prince Andrew. The queen's second son had to withdraw from public life because of his ties to the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of having sexually exploited underage girls for years and who committed suicide in jail. Her marriage to Sarah Ferguson ended in divorce in 1996.
No title of nobility
Peter Phillips, the oldest of the Queen's eight grandchildren, is the son of Princess Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips. He has no title and has never represented the royal family. Princess Anne herself divorced in April 1992, following an extra-marital affair of her husband.
"The decision to divorce and share custody of the children was made after months of discussion and mutual agreement," said the spokesman, adding that the queen had been warned last year. "The couple's priority remains the well-being of their two wonderful daughters," he added.
Peter and Autumn met in 2003 for the Montreal Grand Prix and were married in 2008 at Windsor Castle.
Margaret had led the way
Two other divorces have particularly marked the history of the British royal family. Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's younger sister, divorced in 1978 from photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones. Long before, the one known as the "rebel princess" wanted to marry fighter pilot Peter Townsend of the Royal Air Force, which she was in love with. An impossible marriage because the label then prohibited a princess from marrying a divorced man.
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Another Windsor divorce rocked the British: that of Prince Charles, heir to the throne, and Lady Diana Spencer. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced on August 28, 1996, shortly after Diana revealed in a biography that her husband had a long-term extra-marital relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. Prince Charles ended up marrying her in 2005, eight years after the death of Diana in a car accident on August 31, 1997, in Paris, in the Alma tunnel.