THE CALL THAT BROKE ANNE’S HEART!
Her daughter Zara feels embarrassed by her father’s new love
After marrying one of rugby union’s cheekiest chappies Mike Tindall, Zara Phillips figured she’d seen enough laddish behaviour to last herself a lifetime.
That is until her dad, 73-year-old Captain Mark Phillips, shocked his family when he unveiled his new girlfriend – Belgian equestrian Florence Standaert, who is thought to be around Zara’s age.
“When Zara met her, it was like looking in the mirror,” says a source of the 41-year-old.
“They look the same, they have the same interests and they’re around the same age. She has told friends it’s all a bit uncomfortable,” adds the source.
TAKING ISSUE WITH DAD
Mark and Florence were pictured watching Zara compete at the Burghley Horse Trials in the UK last week, with Mail Online reporting the fledgling couple have become “inseparable”. Friends say Zara is outwardly supportive of her dear old dad and only
‘She’s been on the phone to her mum complaining about it incessantly’
wants him to be happy, but on the inside, “she’s cringing a bit”, says a source. “She’s been on the phone to her mum complaining about the situation incessantly.”
Princess Anne, 72, who married Mark in 1973 before divorcing him in the 1990s following reports of her alleged affair with her bodyguard, is said to be “encouraging Zara to keep cool”.
“Anne has seen it all and nothing shocks her, not even her ex-husband debuting a girlfriend who is a carbon copy of their daughter,” says the insider, explaining that Anne is worried seeing her daughter in such a state but is trying her best to soothe her concerns in her typical stoic way.