What’s your state of mind as the wedding day nears?
Autumn: “Excited, nervous … I’m probably feeling what any bride would feel in the run-up to her big day. But there’s still a lot of preparation to do, which seems harder as I’m working full time. The last meeting about flowers had to be at 6.30am! So it’s full-on – not much of a rest until the honeymoon!”
Peter: “I’m quite glad I’ve got over the stag do! I think, for me, it’s plain sailing from here.”
Yours is the first royal wedding of your generation.
P: “So it’s raised a few interesting issues concerning the formalities of the service and how it’s all meant to work Obviously with my grandparents being who they are, there are set precedents for various events but for this one – the marriage of a grandchild – there are no precedents. It’s been quite fun and it’s also going to be very different. When various other members of my generation get married, it’s likely to be on a much grander scale. I don’t think Autumn and I are pathfinders as such, but we are laying some ground work.”
Peter, do you warrant special treatment as the first grandchild?
“No! Having said that, Granny and Grandpa have been incredibly kind allowing us to get married in St George’s and holding the reception at Frogmore. Their generosity has been above and beyond what we could have expected and hoped for. It’s going to make the day that much more special, because essentially I grew up between Gatcombe and Windsor, where we spent Christmas and Easter. So Frogmere holds many happy memories for me. We used to run round the gardens and have our Easter egg hunts there. To get married there is a huge honour and it’s very touching that they allowed us to do it. I asked because it’s never been done but also because Frogmore is a very special place for the Queen and the Duke, so it’s even more special for us.”
It’s special to the Queen because her late parents spent part of their honeymoon there.
A: “It’s also very Peter. He had his heart set on it. He’s chosen well because it’s beautiful and romantic with a gorgeous lake and stunning scenery.”
It is also a long way from the tent where you first met. Tell us the story.
P: “It was June 2003 at the Montreal Grand Prix. I was working for BMW Williams and Autumn was working in the main BMW hospitality suite. I had to take Ralph Schumacher there for a guest appearance. Whilst he was doing his best up on stage this rather attractive young lady appeared and we started chatting away. I came back later to invite her to the post-race party.”
A: “He came back twice and I wasn’t there. When we did catch up, I still wasn’t sure I was going to go, as I was still at university and Sunday night was a ‘school night’! Peter gave me four tickets so that I could bring along three girlfriends. It was a post-race Formula One party so it wasn’t too hard to convince my friends to come and meet this gorgeous English guy I wanted to see again. But I’d never actually given his name.”
P: “I had to ask one of my colleagues what she was called. He asked me which of the two girls I meant, and when I said ‘the really good-looking one’, he told me she was Megan.”
So you were wrong footed from the start…
A: “At the party, Peter came over with that big, gorgeous smile he has and I said, ‘You don’t actually know my name.’ ‘Of course I do!’ he announced, all very proud. ‘It’s Megan’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘It’s not!’”
P: “At which point I wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole.”
Undisclosed identity was a bit of a feature in your early relationship…
A: “I had no idea who Peter was. We had a fun night, met for coffee the next day and started e-mailing when he went back to England. I’d never heard of Peter or Zara Phillips. Maybe six weeks later, after talking on the phone every day, and making one weekend visit to see him, I was watching TV with my mum. It was a special for Prince William’s 21st birthday, and suddenly there was a film clip and a mention of Peter Phillips. ‘Hey Mum,’ I said, ‘That guy looks a lot like Peter.’ She told me to be quiet. The picture flashed up again and I said, ‘No seriously, Mum, that looks exactly like Peter.’ ‘Stop it, Autumn!’ she said. ‘I’m trying to watch TV.’ So I ran upstairs, looked on the internet and shouted down, ‘This is him! This is Peter.’ That was the point at which she said ‘Oh Autumn! What have you gotten yourself into?’ So literally Pete and I were together all that time and I had no idea.”
Why did you not tell her, Peter? Were you quite glad of some weeks just being incognito?
P: “There was no cause to mention it, no reason at all to tell her.”
Autumn, how come you hadn’t rumbled something on your weekend here together?
A: “We’d gone to Wimbledon and then just spent the weekend in Oxford, where Peter was living, doing our own thing. So I couldn’t know.”
When you found out, was there a sense of shock, of having a bit of truth withheld.
P: “She was a little bit angry!”
A: “Because then you start thinking ‘Oh my God!’ Everything starts going round in your head. By this stage, I’d already accepted a job here, and was moving over to England. So it just meant that everything seemed a little more complicated than I had originally thought. It kind of scared me actually, because I live a normal life and just get on with things. So there I was thinking, ‘Okay, it’s a big move, but I’ve met somebody, and even if it doesn’t work out between us, I’ll always have a friend…’ As it turned out, things weren’t so complicated because we continued to do our own thing anyway. We both work full time, enjoy our weekends and get on with our lives like anybody else.”
Were you coming over here expressly to be with Peter?
A: “It was weird: I met the CEO of the computer company that brought me over the same day and in the same suite where I met Peter. He wanted someone who spoke French and English; I’ve always loved travelling and I thought, ‘I’ve nothing to lose. It’s just a flight away from home’.”
But his name is fairly common so I think it wouldn't be much help.
