As she wore royal-approved brands and conversing easily with senior members of the Firm, Peter Phillips’ girlfriend Harriet Sperling seemed in many ways the new belle of the family as she attended Royal Ascot last week.
But the NHS nurse, 45, who herself boasts wealthy connections and is related to the Duke of Gloucester through her late father, has previously opened up about a ‘tough’ battle she’s faced behind the scenes.
Last week, Harriet seemed to have been given the ultimate symbol of royal approval as she arrived at Ascot in the official carriage procession with senior royals.
Behind the scenes, she is mother to one daughter, Georgina, born in 2012, from her previous marriage to private school-educated fitness instructor Antonio St John Sperling.
A paediatric nurse specialist, Harriet is said to have commuted to London from her home in Gloucestershire for many years for her job in the NHS.
In a piece written for Christian magazine Woman Alive last year, she admitted that she’d often found life as a single parent difficult, but found comfort after turning to her faith.
Writing under her maiden name – Sanders – Harriet referred to comments comedian Katherine Ryan had made about parenting as a single mother to her daughter.
She said: ‘In the earlier years of my journey as a single mother to my daughter, resources were scarce, and the future was uncertain. Yet, in the absence of material security, I discovered the strength and life that comes from true selfless love. A love that is able to be solely devoted to your child.
‘My daughter and I journeyed 10 years with only each other. I liken us to an island and it has often felt hard to imagine anyone joining that island.
‘But of course beauty comes from relationships, relationship with our maker and relationship with each other. It is often tough parenting alone but although there is a stigma to endure, God is able to step in and turn it for good.’
Harriet trained as a nurse in London where, by her own admission, she was something of a ‘party girl’, going to nightclubs and spending her summers in Ibiza.
‘My faith was always in me, but it was kind of dormant,’ she revealed in an interview in 2009.
‘Somehow it didn’t seem relevant to my life in London. But the end of a seven-year relationship was the turning point for me. I went to church as I felt there was something missing.’
According to an online bio, Peter’s girlfriend Harriet lives in Gloucestershire and works as a Paediatric Nurse Specialist for the NHS.
She is ‘passionate about early brain development in babies and seeing children thrive,’ the bio notes.
In 2010, Harriet was a key member of a team of medics, doctors and clinicians who helped save the life of a critically ill baby, named Phineas, after he was struck down by a deadly virus aged just three weeks.
Like her boyfriend Peter (Princess Anne’s son and the late Queen’s first and favourite grandson), Harriet also boasts connections of a very high status.
The Mail revealed last week that her late father Rupert was the ‘only son of Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Sanders, of Buckhorn House, Bisley, Gloucestershire’.
Rupert, who died in 2023, was a well-known solicitor who ran his own firm in the Cotswold town of Cirencester.
His father Geoffrey, Harriet’s late grandfather, served during the Second World War with the Royal Artillery and was a D-Day veteran – reaching the rank of major, going on to become High Sheriff of Gloucestershire and a long-standing church warden, as well as editor of the Stroud News and Journal for 20 years.
Harriet’s paternal grandmother Eleanor was the daughter of Dorothy Courage, of the Courage brewing dynasty.
Dorothy’s brother Raymond was Lord of the Manor of Edgcote, in Northamptonshire – an 18th century estate, once owned by Anne of Cleves (wife of Henry VIII).
Harriet herself attended Dean Close School, a Christian boarding and day school, in Cheltenham.
Last week, the mother-of-one appeared very much to have been granted the royal seal of approval as she joined senior royals in the traditional carriage procession arriving at Royal Ascot.
She appeared to be getting on swimmingly with the royals, chatting with Princess Anne on the balcony, while Peter’s sister Zara Tindall was at one point seen helping out by fixing her hat.
Attending once again on Thursday, she and Peter held hands and exchanged a kiss.
Following the procession, Harriet was seen in conversation with a very amused King Charles – yet another indication that she’s been granted the royal sign of approval.
At £3,720, her outfit was certainly fit for mingling with high society.
Her heels on Tuesday were by Emmy London, a brand worn by the Princess of Wales, and the £395 clutch was from the same brand; the hat was a £945 number by Awon Golding Millinery, a brand once sported by Meghan Markle.
Meanwhile her balloon-sleeved jacket and midi skirt were by designer Suzannah London, a label favoured by Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and by Catherine, Princess of Wales.
She and Peter revealed their relationship last May when they were seen strolling hand-in-hand at Badminton Horse Trials in Gloucestershire.
Last year, the couple packed on the PDA before meeting with the King and Queen, embarking on their new romance just weeks after his split from Lindsay, after reportedly meeting at a sports event.
The smitten pair have since attended an array of high society events together, including Wimbledon and the Badminton Horse Trials – as well as Cheltenham Races in January.
Peter himself has two daughters – Savannah, 14, and Isla, 13, from his previous 12-year marriage to Autumn Kelly.
Princess Anne rejected royal titles for her two children, meaning neither Peter nor Zara are ‘working royals’.
After his split from Autumn Kelly in 2020, Peter had a three-year relationship with Scottish divorcee Lindsay Wallace.
As for the future of Peter and Harriet’s relationship, rumours are already flying.
The late Queen Elizabeth didn’t include girlfriends in the Ascot procession unless they were engaged, so Harriet’s presence has been viewed as something of an endorsement by the King.
As to whether there might be any announcements brewing between the nurse and the 18th in line to the throne, Harriet’s mother Mary Sanders said in an interview with the Mail last week: ‘Well, it’s not something I know anything about.’
She added: ‘I don’t think there’s much I can say apart from we have four children and she’s my middle daughter. She’s lovely. I’m very proud of her and she is very special.’
