Jump to content
Bellazon

Zara Phillips
Thumbnail


COP11

Recommended Posts

Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, MBE (born 15 May 1981) is the second child and only daughter of Princess Anne, Princess Royal and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips. She is the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and is 12th in the line of succession to the thrones of 16 independent countries.

An equestrian, Phillips is the former Eventing World Champion who won the World Championship in Aachen and was voted 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year that year by the British viewing public (an award her mother won in 1971). She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 New Year's Honours List for her services to equestrianism.

She has an older brother, Peter Phillips, born 15 November 1977, and two half-sisters: Felicity Tonkin, born in 1985 to her father and Heather Tonkin; and Stephanie Phillips, born 2 October 1997 from her father's second marriage to Sandy Pflueger.

She later qualified as a physiotherapist specialising in Equine Physiotherapy from the University of Exeter.

During her time at school, she excelled at many sporting activities and represented her schools in hockey, athletics and gymnastics.

Equestrian

Following in both her parents' footsteps, Phillips is an accomplished equestrian. In June 2003, she announced that she had secured a sponsorship deal with Cantor Index, a leading company in spread betting, to help cover the costs of her equestrian career.

Together with her horse Toytown, she collected individual and team gold medals at the 2005 European Eventing Championship in Blenheim and individual gold and team silver medals at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, making her the reigning Eventing World Champion.

However, despite winning team gold at the 2007 European Eventing Championships in Italy, she failed to defend her own individual title after a problem in the show jumping phase of the competition.

It was announced by the British Olympic Association that Phillips would be riding Toytown as one of five riders for the British equestrian team at the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 in Hong Kong. However, an injury sustained by Toytown during training led to her being forced to withdraw from the team. Zara previously missed the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens when Toytown suffered a similar injury during training.

On 25 October 2008, She fell from her horse, Tsunami II, at the 15th fence of a cross-country event at Pau, France, and broke her right collarbone. The horse had broken its neck after it had tipped over the hedge and so had to be put down.

As the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, Phillips supports many charitable causes. In 2003, she and Princess Anne took part in the first UK double ship-naming ceremony in Southampton. Princess Anne named the P&O Cruises liner Oceana and Phillips named its sister ship Adonia.

She frequently attends various events for charity and has taken to supporting certain causes herself, mainly for spinal injuries, equestrian charities and children's causes.

In 2005, she auctioned one of her evening gowns (worn at the London premiere of the film Seabiscuit) to raise money for tsunami relief. She also undertook a visit to New Zealand in her role as patron of The Catwalk Trust.

From 1998 to 2005 she served as the president of Club 16-24, a group which encourages young people to take an interest in racing.

She is also linked to INSPIRE, the Salisbury based medical research charity which helps to improve the quality of life of people with spinal cord injuries, and Sargent Cancer Care for Children, the UK's leading children's cancer charity.

She also appears at events for The Caudwell Charitable Trust, which is targeted at children with special needs, disabilities and serious illnesses.

She has continued her family's long patronage of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and has visited on many occasions.

In 2006, she took part in a special charity day for Cantor Index, whose staff were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In 2007, she became patron of the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund.

To help with Sport Relief 2008, she posed for her first official royal portrait by artist Jack Vettriano.

In 2009, she attended a celebrity poker tournament in Monaco in aid of Darfur, Sudan.

In September of 2010, she attended the 2012 London Olympic Ball alongside cousin Prince Harry of Wales. In October of the same year she will attend another celebrity poker tournament, this time in London, in aid of Cancer Research UK, of which she is Royal Patron.

Relationships

Phillips' often stormy relationship with former fiancé and National Hunt jockey Richard Johnson attracted the attention of the British paparazzi, and the couple's split in November 2003 became front page news.

On 21 December 2010, Buckingham Palace announced her engagement to Mike Tindall the Gloucester and England Rugby player, with whom she lives at their home in Gloucestershire.

Clothing design

In 2009 it was announced that Phillips would be designing her own range of equestrian clothing for Musto Outdoor Clothing. The range is named ZP176 after the team number Zara was given when she first represented her country. The range was officially launched in July 2010.

In popular culture

The graphic novel V for Vendetta contains a reference to "Queen Zara"; it is implied that following a nuclear war in the 1980s she was the most senior survivor in the order of succession. The novel refers to Queen Zara's 16th birthday being in June; this could either be her official birthday, or an alternate universe difference.

2004 Phillips showed support for the British motor company Land Rover during the launch of the new Freelander.

2008 Phillips starred in 'viral' video to promote the British Eventing Olympic team.

post-37737-1293381992_thumb.jpg

post-37737-1293381997_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...