Peter ‘stayed at married woman’s as all hotels were closed’
PETER Phillips stayed the night at the home of a school friend of his sister’s in Aberdeenshire during a 460-mile trip from his home because he could not find a hotel, it was claimed yesterday.
The Queen’s grandson is said to have visited Lindsay Wallace twice in seven months – but his spokesman insisted she was just a ‘family friend’.
Police quizzed Mr Phillips on the second occasion last week over a potential breach of lockdown rules, but found none.
Mr Phillips, 43, has claimed he was staying overnight on business for his company XF Medical, which was set up last June to provide rapid coronavirus antibody tests. Mrs Wallace, 40, is a close
‘A long-standing family friend’
friend of Mr Phillips’s sister Zara, 39, after they attended the £40,000-a-year Gordonstoun school together.
She was among the guests at her wedding to rugby star Mike Tindall in 2011.
She is also a ‘long-standing’ family friend of Mr Phillips, who was a few years above her at the same school, according to his spokesman.
Both split from their partners last year and were reported to have grown closer at a recent school reunion.
Sources close to Mr Phillips yesterday denied rumours the friends were dating, Hello! magazine reported. He stayed the night at her home in the village of St Cyrus as there were no hotels in the area open due to lockdown, according to the magazine.
But another source told The Sun: ‘Peter is besotted with her. They have known each other for quite some time. They have been keeping things under wraps.
‘Only the inner circle knew about this friendship.’
Mr Phillips confirmed in February last year that he had separated from the mother of his two children, Autumn Phillips, 41. He has twice driven 460 miles from his mother Princess Anne’s stately home Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire, where he lives, to see Mrs Wallace. Mrs Wallace is understood to have split from her husband Andrew last year. They wed in 2010 and have two children.
She is said to be from a wealthy family who ‘pride themselves on being pillars of their local community’.
Last August, both families met for ‘a day out at the beach’ in St Cyrus while Mr Phillips was staying with his children 50 miles away at Balmoral.
At the time, the Scottish Government was warning about virus flare-ups – with Aberdeen, only 30 miles up the coast, put into lockdown.
A spokesman for Mr Phillips said it was ‘a personal family trip’ and all regulations and social distancing had been adhered to. On the second visit last week, however, police were called to Mrs Wallace’s detached house after Mr Phillips’s 4x4 Range Rover was spotted outside.
Police Scotland said they had received a report of a potential breach of lockdown and went to the property on Friday. No breaches were found.
A spokesman for Mr Phillips said he had travelled to Scotland ‘on business in connection with his work for XF Medical’. He added: ‘We do not comment on details or circumstances of Mr Phillips’s accommodation when travelling. Neither do we comment on XF Medical business or information which is commercially sensitive.’
Mrs Wallace declined to comment.