Surprising reason Princess Beatrice is 'more royal' than her cousin Zara Tindall (2025)

Princess Beatrice and Zara Tindall are friends as well as cousins (Image: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Princess Beatrice and Zara Tindall are known for not only being cousins, but also good friends. Last year, both Beatrice and Zara were spotted together alongside their husbands at Cheltenham Festival, showing just how close their bond is.

However, despite being cousins with the same family members, it appears that Prince Andrew’s daughter Beatrice is technically more royal than her cousin Zara Tindall, the only daughter of Princess Anne. This is because Beatrice and Eugenie’s mum Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, is actually a descendant of the Royal Family. Sarah has illustrious family connections to the Dukes of Buccleuch and has relatives with the surname Montagu Douglas Scott.

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This aristocratic family is connected to the Royal Family after the marriage of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, on November 6th 1935.

This means that as Sarah Ferguson is distantly linked to the Royal Family, this makes both her daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie “more royal” than Zara Tindall.

Despite Zara Tindall’s father Captain Mark Phillips being well-known, he did not have any major aristocratic connections.

Rather than meeting through high profile connections, Princess Anne met Zara’s father Captain Mark Phillips through their love of horses.

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Beatrice and Zara are both nieces of King Charles (Image: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)

As reported by Town and Country, Anne and Mark met on the equestrian circuit at an event.

As Phillips is from a British military family, he served in the army after training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

He then served as a Second Lieutenant before becoming an acting Captain at the time of his marriage to Anne, 74, in 1973. He was promoted to Captain in July 1975 and retired from the Army in 1978.

The couple later divorced in 1992 and co-parented their children Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, who to this day have good relationships with both their parents.