An equestrienne, Phillips is the former Eventing World Champion, who won the World Championship in Aachen and was voted 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year by the British viewing public (an award her mother won in 1971). She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 New Year's Honours List for her services to equestrianism.
She is the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. At the time of her birth she was sixth in line to succeed her grandmother, the Queen. As of the birth of her niece Savannah Phillips in 2010, she is 13th in the line of succession to the thrones of 16 independent countries.
She has an older brother, Peter Phillips, born 15 November 1977, and two half-sisters, Felicity Tonkin, born in 1985 to her father by his brief affair with Heather Tonkin, and Stephanie Phillips, born 2 October 1997 from her father's second marriage to Sandy Pflueger.
At the request of their mother, the children of the Princess Royal do not hold any royal or noble title, nor are they automatically entitled to royal status by right of birth, as they are the grandchildren of a monarch in the female line.
