We learned this week that Peter Phillips and Lindsay Wallace split up recently. No one knows when they started, but they ended both of their marriages in 2020 and they were seemingly joined at the hip from 2021 onward. Lindsay was immediately welcomed in royal circles and royal events, even though she was still technically married to another man. I’ll be honest – their split surprised me because it really did feel like they would marry, that’s how established they were as a couple. So now Peter Phillips is 46 years old, divorced, single and still trying to cash in on his royal-adjacency. The Daily Beast referred to him as “The World’s Most Eligible Royal Bachelor.” No thanks! LMAO. Meanwhile, Peter’s split comes at a time where there’s a royal-gossip vacuum, which is probably why Camilla Tominey and Richard Kay both devoted long-winded, overwrought columns to Peter’s situation. Tominey actually made him sound like a loser, but Kay is trying to make him sound “unlucky in love.”

Royals don’t have happy marriages? Some will see it as another example of a mid-life relationship that has sadly run its course. Others will doubtless caustically note it offers further proof that far from guaranteeing domestic happiness, membership of the Royal Family is positively an impediment. For Peter Phillips, however, yesterday’s news that he has split from his long-term girlfriend Lindsay Wallace – after the agony of his broken first marriage – there is the additional burden of knowing that of all Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren, he has been the unluckiest in love.

Wallace won’t be the second Mrs. Phillips: The news that she had been introduced to his grandmother during a shooting party at Windsor and had accompanied him to the christening of his sister Zara Tindall’s son, Lucas, at the royals’ private chapel in Windsor Great Park, suggested she was not just a permanent fixture in his life but well on the way to becoming the second Mrs Phillips. And thanks to her discretion – she has never spoken publicly about their relationship – she had all the attributes of a potential royal bride.

No cheating, Lindsay just lives in Scotland: Citing his work with Formula 1 – he is head of partner acquisition for a sports and entertainment rights agency – the friend added of the split: ‘It obviously came as a shock as most people thought they were absolutely rock solid. It’s very sad. Peter has been travelling all over the world and has been incredibly busy, and Lindsay is based up in Scotland, so it’s been hard for them to see each other.’ Other insiders said the two remained friends and that no other party was involved – some consolation at least as the royals adjust to another tale of domestic woe.

No longer the Firm’s secret weapon: For Phillips it is a further blow to his once impregnable position as the royals’ secret weapon. Handsome, polite, confident and dependable – all qualities which over the years served him well – he basked in the knowledge that he was the late Queen’s first and favourite grandson. Since her passing he has enjoyed a similarly close kinship with his uncle, King Charles. Whenever there was a family crisis, invariably it was Phillips, 18th in line to the throne, who answered the call to sort it out. At the time of Princess Diana’s death in 1997 the then 19-year-old took it upon himself to spend time with his grieving cousins William and Harry, hiking with them over the Balmoral estate.

The royal burden: He enjoyed a particularly close relationship with his grandfather, who privately dubbed him ‘the winner’ because of his independence. Easy-going and rarely flustered, he wore his royalty lightly. But there are those now wondering if that proximity has, after all, been more of a burden than a blessing. Flitting in the shadows of royal life – thanks largely to his mother’s decision not to accept titles for either of her children – he escaped the spotlight which might have shone on him as Queen Elizabeth’s grandson. Privately, however, he enjoyed every advantage of his birthright without the inconvenience of actually having to work for the Royal Family.

A chip off the ol’ block: The pair did not appear with the rest of the Royal Family at Sandringham for Christmas. And when Ms Wallace did not join Phillips at the Bahrain Grand Prix at the beginning of March, questions began to be asked. Just what prompted the split is not clear. Inevitably some will talk of that old cliche that an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and wonder if Phillips is a chip off his father’s block…Letting one long-term relationship fail may be unfortunate, allowing two to slip through your fingers looks careless. No wonder Phillips’s friends say he will now need all his admirable qualities to reinvent himself.

[From The Daily Mail]

“Just what prompted the split is not clear. Inevitably some will talk of that old cliche that an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and wonder if Phillips is a chip off his father’s block…” Okay, now I’m curious. Curious as to why Peter’s split has inspired the old-guard royalists to write these Easter-egg filled columns. Curious as to what will come out next, because all of this seems to be foreshadowing. Did Lindsay Wallace dump Peter because he cheated or worse? And why is there a sudden rush to refer to Peter as a secret weapon, etc? Granted, it could just be boredom on Kay’s part. I have the feeling that there’s an editorial order to tread water at the moment before some larger storms roll in.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.