How Princess Anne Broke The Rules Of Royal Divorce

It isn’t far into the fifth season of The Crown that Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki) remarks on the state of three royal marriages – including her own. Within a year, three of Queen Elizabeth II's four children ended their marriages with separation or divorce in quick succession, leading the late monarch to reflect on the tumultuous period as an “annus horribilis.” But here’s what really happened with those three royal divorces.

Divorce, of course, has been a contentious subject especially for the royal family for centuries. While it is allowed, divorce is often discouraged and seen as a last resort. And the Queen probably wasn't expecting three to happen within the space of a decade, let alone one year. Things became even more complicated when Princess Anne requested to marry a second time, too. As the Head of the Church of England, the Queen was bound by the rules that divorcees can't remarry. However, this rule changed in 2002, when the Church of England allowed remarriage in “certain special circumstances,” which allowed King Charles III to marry Camilla, Queen Consort, in 2005.

Princess Anne and Mark Phillips

Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips first met at an event in Mexico City in 1968 and married in November 1973. Despite being together for the longest of the three marriages, they announced their separation in 1989 after both Anne and Phillips had extra-marital affairs. Phillips fathered a child with a woman from New Zealand in 1985, while Anne began a relationship with Sir Timothy Laurence, then equerry to the Queen. Anne filed for divorce in April 1992 and shared custody of their children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall.

Soon after, Laurence proposed to Princess Anne, and the two were married by the end of the year. However, as the Church of England did not allow the remarriage of divorcees at the time, the royal couple travelled to Scotland to tie the knot at a Presbyterian church. To add to the drama, their wedding occurred just a few days after Buckingham Palace announced Prince Charles and Princess Diana's intention to separate.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson

In the same year as Charles and Diana, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson decided to call time on their relationship, having been together for seven years. Four years later, the couple announced the mutual decision to divorce, which was finalised in May 1996. Ferguson legally retained the “Her Royal Highness” title but decided to “relinquish” it shortly after. Like Diana, her name was restyled as Sarah, Duchess of York.

According to Ferguson, the main reason for their divorce was spending too much time apart due to Andrew's position in the Royal Navy. “I spent my entire pregnancy alone,” she told Harper's Bazaar in 2011. “When Beatrice was born, Andrew got 10 days of shore leave and when he left I cried.” There were rumours at the time that the Duchess of York had been unfaithful, particularly after being embroiled in a photo scandal with an American financial advisor shortly after they announced their separation.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana

After a tumultuous and strained relationship and Charles' affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, former Prime Minister John Major announced that Charles and Diana planned to separate in December 1992. “This decision has been reached amicably and they will both continue to participate fully in the upbringing of their children,” the statement read. After fifteen years of marriage, the royal couple finalised their divorce in August 1996.

Diana lost the title of “Her Royal Highness” and was instead referred to as Diana, Princess of Wales. However, as she was the mother of an heir to the throne, Diana remained a senior member of the royal family. The Queen reportedly wanted Diana to keep the “HRH” styling after the divorce, but Charles “insisted” on removing it, according to the Express.