How paediatric nurse Harriet Sperling became a royal fiancée

Telegraph

5 days ago

As a single mother, she struggled for years on a nurse's salary and 'scarce' resources. Now, after a whirlwind romance, Harriet Sperling, 45, is set to join the Royal family after becoming engaged to Peter Phillips, the son of the Princess Royal and the eldest grandchild of the late Queen.
The happy couple shared their news on Friday, after just 15 months of dating, having already informed the King and Queen. But just who is the new addition to the Firm?
Sperling was born Harriet Eleanor Sanders in 1980, the third of four children (she has one brother and two sisters), to solicitor Rupert Sanders and Mary Hoskins and has a fascinating ancestry.
Her mother was one of Country Life 's 'girls in pearls': her photograph appeared in the magazine in 1971 to mark her engagement.
Rupert Sanders's father, Major Geoffrey Sanders, served as High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, and his grandmother's brother Raymond Courage was Lord of the Manor of Edgcote in Northamptonshire from 1926 until his death in 1951. Fans of the BBC's 1995 dramatisation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice will recognise Edgcote as Mr Bingley's grand estate, Netherfield Park.
The estate's most recent owner, Christopher Courage (Sperling's second cousin once-removed), is the scion of a brewing dynasty: Courage Brewery, which dates back to 1787. Christopher sold Edgcote in 2005 for £30m.
Sperling's father, who died in 2023, also gives her a royal connection. He attended the 1969 wedding of his first cousin, Timothy de Zoete, to Moyra Dawnay, Princess Alice's niece. Princess Alice was in attendance along with her husband, Prince Henry, the son of George V.
Sperling's mother and late father shared a devout faith. Mr Sanders was a long-standing churchwarden, and Mrs Sanders serves in the ministry team at her local church, All Hallows in the Gloucestershire village of South Cerney, where the family has a £1.5m, six-bedroom Edwardian home. Growing up, Sperling attended the Christian Dean Close School in Cheltenham.
Sperling studied at St Mary's University in Twickenham, and became an NHS nurse specialising in paediatric care at Evelina London Children's Hospital. The Princess of Wales has been a patron of the hospital since 2018.
Despite finding such an admirable vocation, in a 2009 interview with the Daily Mail for an article about young women and faith, Sperling confessed that her faith became 'dormant' when she moved to the capital. She explained: 'Somehow it didn't seem relevant to my life in London, going to famous nightclubs and spending a lot of time in Ibiza during the summer. I was a real party girl.' But the end of a seven-year relationship marked a turning point: 'I went to church as I felt there was something missing.'
She chose St Paul's in Onslow Square, west London, Sperling said, because of its 'intimate feel' and active engagement with the wider community. It had brought her a sense of fulfilment and peace, she explained, adding: 'I pray not only on Sunday, but all the time, often just quietly to myself.' That helped her with her job, which could be 'quite stressful and emotionally engaging'.
Sperling once told a magazine she had a particular passion for 'early brain development', and in 2010 she was part of a heroic medical team who helped save the life of critically ill baby Phineas, who had been struck down by a deadly virus.
Speaking in 2012, Sperling recalled: 'Just 20 minutes after receiving the call to collect Phineas, the retrieval team were on our way in an intensive care ambulance.'
In 2012 Sperling, who was previously married to fitness instructor Antonio St John Sperling, gave birth to her own child: daughter Georgia. But, writing for Christian magazine Woman Alive in March last year, she revealed that she had brought Georgia up on her own. 'Resources were scarce and the future was uncertain,' she said. 'Yet, in the absence of material security, I discovered the strength and life that comes from true, selfless love.' She added: '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.'
However, at around this time, someone new did enter her life. Sperling reportedly met Phillips, 47, at a sporting event involving their similarly aged children. Phillips has two daughters, Savannah, 14, and Isla, 13, with Canadian ex-wife Autumn Kelly (the pair divorced in 2021).
Phillips and Sperling's public debut in May 2024 at the Badminton Horse Trials was also a family affair, attended by Phillips's daughters, his sister Zara Tindall and her husband Mike, and the Queen. It was Sperling's first time in the media spotlight, yet she appeared to take it all in her stride.
A friend of Phillips told The Telegraph that the pair were 'enjoying each other's company and spending time together like any normal couple', while an onlooker said of Sperling: 'She looked very happy and relaxed in his company and pleased to be shown off at one of the biggest social events in the equestrian world.'
Sporting occasions played a large part in the couple's summer of love. In the June, they were spotted in the VIP tent at the Beaufort Polo Club in Gloucestershire, and that month also saw them attend Royal Ascot, where Sperling met the King and Queen.
One year on from their first public outing, Sperling and Phillips returned to the Badminton Horse Trials – this time cheering on Zara Tindall, who was being awarded the event's Armada Dish. Sperling also joined the family at the Bahrain Grand Prix in April, where she spent time with Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie; in Wimbledon's royal box, alongside the Queen; and at the Royal Charity Polo Cup in Windsor, in support of Prince William.
But it was another event that truly cemented Sperling's place as a future royal bride. In June she made her royal carriage debut in the procession at Ascot, accompanying Phillips in carriage three. That suggested Sperling, who appears to have slotted naturally into the Firm, had been given the official seal of approval.
Even so, it was a surprise on Friday when she and Phillips announced their betrothal. The news came via Hello! magazine, which published two photographs of the couple (in which Sperling showed off her diamond engagement ring, estimated by one expert to cost at least £10,000) shortly after Phillips and Sperling spoke to the King and Queen.
The choice of magazine prompted reminders of Phillips's first wedding, in 2008, when he caused controversy by selling the exclusive photographic rights to Hello! for a reported £500,000, allegedly angering the late Queen, who was not consulted in advance.
The pictures marking Phillips and Sperling's engagement, however, are said to have been taken privately and it is understood that no commercial arrangement was made with Hello! or any other publication.
The couple have yet to announce a date for their wedding. However leading designers will surely be champing at the bit to dress Sperling. She has already won praise for the elegant way in which she mixes high-street brands such as Zara with royal-approved British designers.
In her engagement photos, Sperling is wearing a white cheesecloth top and skirt set by Me+Em, a home-grown label favoured by the Princess of Wales.
It's likely that the couple's new blended family will be highlighted in the ceremony, perhaps with their three daughters acting as bridesmaids. Savannah and Isla previously took that role at Princess Eugenie's wedding in 2018.
As both an elegant figure, coolly unfazed by public duties, and a hard-working NHS nurse and single mother, Sperling is the ideal fit for a gradually modernising institution. It appears she's not just a great match for Phillips: she could be the Royal family's shining new star.