A few months ago, I noted that Peter Phillips’ girlfriend Harriet Sperling seemed to have the approval of not just his family, but the British media. There was a sense of togetherness, that everyone was working in tandem to make Harriet happen and give her a big rollout. The only thing surprising about their engagement news last week was that it came together so quickly, roughly 14 months after they started dating. The Mail and other outlets have been raving about Harriet’s style, and they’re already doing big fashion articles with affiliate links. Commenters said that Harriet has been getting free/comped clothes this whole time, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all. I haven’t seen any outlet confirm it though – probably because everyone expects Peter to make deals wherever he can. Speaking of, there’s some chatter about Peter and Harriet’s engagement photos, which Hello Magazine carried exclusively. Meaning, Hello almost definitely paid for those photos. But sources told the Telegraph that Hello didn’t pay for the pics?
In June Harriet Sperling made her royal carriage debut in the procession at Ascot, accompanying Peter Phillips in carriage three. That suggested Sperling, who appears to have slotted naturally into the Firm, had been given the official seal of approval.
Even so, it was a surprise on Friday when she and Phillips announced their betrothal. The news came via Hello! magazine, which published two photographs of the couple (in which Sperling showed off her diamond engagement ring, estimated by one expert to cost at least £10,000) shortly after Phillips and Sperling spoke to the King and Queen.
The choice of magazine prompted reminders of Phillips’s first wedding, in 2008, when he caused controversy by selling the exclusive photographic rights to Hello! for a reported £500,000, allegedly angering the late Queen, who was not consulted in advance.
The pictures marking Phillips and Sperling’s engagement, however, are said to have been taken privately and it is understood that no commercial arrangement was made with Hello! or any other publication.
The couple have yet to announce a date for their wedding. However leading designers will surely be champing at the bit to dress Sperling. She has already won praise for the elegant way in which she mixes high-street brands such as Zara with royal-approved British designers. In her engagement photos, Sperling is wearing a white cheesecloth top and skirt set by Me+Em, a home-grown label favoured by the Princess of Wales.
As both an elegant figure, coolly unfazed by public duties, and a hard-working NHS nurse and single mother, Sperling is the ideal fit for a gradually modernising institution. It appears she’s not just a great match for Phillips: she could be the Royal family’s shining new star.
“She could be the Royal family’s shining new star?” “Unfazed by public duties?” I wasn’t aware that Peter had public duties – he just shows up for fun stuff like Ascot and Wimbledon, and some of the family events. Perhaps they’re talking about the “public duty” of being a royal-adjacent figure for the tabloids to talk about. Anyway, the tabloids are playing nice right now, which speaks volumes about the glamour-vacuum which exists in the Windsor clan right now. I strongly suspect that whoever briefed the Telegraph about the Hello exclusive wasn’t telling the truth. And honestly, why does it matter? Peter doesn’t have a title, he isn’t a working royal, and he’s already been caught monetizing his royal-adjacency many times. “Selling engagement photos to Hello” is a pretty nothingburger scandal.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images, Hello’s IG.
