When Captain Mark Phillips had a Lovechild
Hidden for almost four decades, intimate details about an affair involving Princess Anne’s former husband, Captain Mark Phillips, were revealed by New Idea. Over 30 years ago, Phillips fathered a secret love child with New Zealander Heather Tonkin. An art teacher. Her name is Felicity Tonkin. While still married to Princess Anne, Captain Mark Phillips had a one-night affair with the art teacher. She became pregnant and had the baby, who is now the half-sister of Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips. It was reported that Phillips asked the woman to end the pregnancy. However, according to royal sources, Mark has been “in denial” about his daughter since the day she was born.
Mark secretly paid his one-time lover a meager $12,000 a year in child support but refused to have anything more to do with his secret daughter. When the payments trailed off, Heather sought to secure a better deal for Felicity, however, Mark refused to be named on her birth certificate. In 1991, a court-ordered DNA test proved he was the father. Defending her decision to make the matter public and threaten Phillips with court action, Tonkin said in a previous interview, “I am doing what I am doing for my child. I hope and pray Mark will do the right thing and make a proper and legally binding settlement on her. “I wish I could wake up one morning in the knowledge that the record had been put straight and I don’t have to worry any more. Nothing can compensate for the tears I have cried while trying to plan for Bunny’s future when at any moment I could find myself penniless.”
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
Wikipedia – Mary, Queen of Scots
Encyclopedia Britannica – Philip IV
History Extra – Death in the New Forest: how King William II met his demise
BBC – William II (Rufus) (c.1056 – 1100)
The Washington Post – Princess Anne Is Fined Court for Dog Attack