Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, MBE (born 15 May 1981) is the second child and only daughter of Princess Anne, Princess Royal and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips. 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.
An equestrian, Phillips is the former Eventing World Champion who won the World Championship in Aachen and was voted 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year that year by the British viewing public (an award her mother won in 1971). She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 New Year's Honours List for her services to equestrianism.
She has an older brother, Peter Phillips, born 15 November 1977, and two half-sisters: Felicity Tonkin, born in 1985 to her father and his former mistress 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 title, nor are they entitled to one by right of birth, as they are the grandchildren of a monarch in the female line.
During her time at school, she excelled at many sporting activities and represented her schools in hockey, athletics and gymnastics. She later qualified as a physiotherapist specialising in Equine Physiotherapy from the University of Exeter. She was listed among CEOWORLD magazine's Hottest Royal Women.
