Queen Camilla Attends the Wedding of Princess Anne’s Son Before Heading to the Epsom Derby

2 min read

Even a queen consort knows when to let someone else have the spotlight. Queen Camilla joined King Charles on Saturday afternoon for the wedding of his nephew, Peter Phillips, to Harriet Sperling. Hats and fascinators are practically a dress code requirement at British weddings, so for the special occasion, Queen Camilla brought the sunshine on a dreary day with a bright yellow, wide-brimmed hat.

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The Queen also carried a Dior handbag.

The ceremony was held at All Saints’ Church in this small Gloucestershire village in the Cotswolds. Phillips, 48, the eldest grandchild of the late Queen Elizabeth and the only son of Princess Anne, married the pediatric nurse and freelance writer, 45, in a private ceremony attended by several members of the royal family, including the groom’s sister, Zara Tindall, and her family as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

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A closeup of Camilla’s hat.

The King and Queen have a busy schedule planned for Saturday. The royal couple are also scheduled to attend the Derby Day at the Epsom Downs Racecourse. Run annually on the first Saturday of June, it is Britain’s most prestigious flat horse race and one of the country’s great national sporting events. The race, formally known as the Derby Stakes, is open to three-year-old colts and fillies competing over a distance of roughly 1.5 miles. It dates back to 1780 and was named after the 12th Earl of Derby following a celebration tied to the inaugural running of the Oaks Stakes the previous year. Legend holds that a coin toss determined whether the race would bear Derby’s name or that of his guest, Sir Charles Bunbury.

The Derby also serves as the middle leg of British horse racing’s Triple Crown, bracketed by the 2000 Guineas and the St. Leger, and its name has since been borrowed around the world, most famously by the Kentucky Derby in the United States. In 1931, it became the first outdoor sporting event ever televised.

Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.