Princess Anne's Divorce Was The Cheating Scandal That Rocked The Royal Family

The British Royal Family have had their share of scandals throughout the decades, but none have been forgotten like Princess Anne's divorce.

When the princess, the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, first announced her engagement to Captain Mark Phillips it was a historic event. It was just the second time in the modern era that a member of the British Royal Family had married a commoner, after the queen's sister Princess Margaret did the same.

But Princess Anne was always known for breaking royal traditions. Like her mother she was always passionate about horses, and competed in equestrian events at an Olympic level (the first member of the British Royal Family to do so).

She met Phillips, a British Army Captain, through the equestrian competition circuit. The couple said their "I dos" in true royal fashion, with a ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 1973 watched by more than 500 million people around the world.

While Anne's Tudor-style dress with a high collar and long sleeves was very traditional, the couple's wedding including one final break with royal rules: Phillips turned down the traditional customary (as in honorary) royal title, meaning that he stayed a commoner after marriage and the couple's children would not receive titles.

It was a fresh and exciting start to their marriage, but years later the couple parted ways in the wake of a huge scandal...

The couple survived a harrowing kidnapping attempt just a few years after their wedding, and had two children together - Peter and Zara.

But their marriage was anything but happy, and by the 1980s its believed both Phillips and Anne were starting to see other people in secret. The first affair to be revealed was Phillips's relationship with Pamela Bordes, a call girl at the House of Commons.

Phillips and Bordes had a lovechild together, and when details of their affair were publicly revealed it was the last nail in the coffin of Anne's marriage. In 1985, a set of stolen letters addressed to her from Commander Timothy Lawrence exposed her own affair.

Surprisingly, and probably only because things were so stormy between the couple, the royal family was very open about the split. They publicly admitted the letters were from Commander Lawrence and even addressed the Bordes affair in public.

Princess Anne and Phillips officially seperated in 1989, and lived apart until 1992 to avoid going to court for their divorce. They both remarried, with Commander Lawrence becoming Anne's second husband the same year her divorce was finalized.

Today Anne is best-known for her work with more than 200 charities, and it's no surprise that her headline-grabbing divorce is barely remembered today. Despite the scandal, it seems like this is one case where things definitely worked out for the best!

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[H/T: People, BBC]