Fury over Zara's £125,000 cuddle

Stretched out on a rug before a roaring fire, Zara Phillips relaxes in the arms of Richard Johnson.

They could be any young couple deep in domestic bliss. But she is the Queen's granddaughter and tenth in line to the throne. And Johnson is not her husband but her live-in boyfriend.

The couple posed for a series of pictures in the current issue of Hello! magazine in a deal said to be worth £125,000.

Whether Zara, 20, has profited from the six-figure deal that Johnson agreed is not known. But she is undoubtedly the focus of the piece, which has reopened the debate about members of the Royal Family using their status for money.

A generation ago such a bold depiction of their love life would have been unheard of.

Even today it is hardly guaranteed to amuse the Queen who is wearily accustomed to her younger relatives' money-making activities.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were the first to blaze this particular trail 11 years ago. Their 48-page Hello! spread was often repeated - especially by the Duchess - in the years that followed.

No one is really shocked that Princess Anne's daughter is living with her boyfriend. It is the lifestyle of choice for countless modern young couples. The surprise is that the royal grandchild left deliberately without a title to ensure she makes her own way in the world nevertheless appears to be revelling in her family connections.

Despite his success as Britain's most promising young National Hunt jockey, it is unlikely Johnson would have secured such a generous fee had he not been sharing his 'cosy Cotswold home' with the Queen's favourite grandchild.

Before the magazine was published, Johnson's agents stressed the coverage would concentrate mainly on the 23-year-old jockey. This was a relief to a nervous Buckingham Palace, still recovering from a year of damaging commercial adventuring by members of the Royal Family.

But the Palace is likely to be disappointed. Zara features in all but one of the glossy 13 pages.

The pictures show the couple dressing their Christmas tree, wrapping presents, modelling a range of clothing and clinking the obligatory champagne glasses. It all reveals a closeness that leaves some of their friends wondering whether Zara and Johnson are considering making their relationship permanent.

They remain tactfully vague about their feelings for each other. No doubt Zara is only too aware how royal romances have soured after brave declarations of love.

The couple tell how they met at the stables of the legendary trainer David Nicholson. Johnson was stable jockey and Zara a groom. "Zara and I used to go out in the same crowd and gradually we became closer," Johnson says. "It wasn't a bolt from the blue, it was something that just grew."

Their relationship intensified after a party at Nicholson's home following last year's Cheltenham Festival.

"We had a discussion about a horse that had raced at the festival meeting and for once I must have been more interesting than the horse," Johnson says. Zara replies: "It was a close run thing!"

Since breaking his leg in a sickening fall at Exeter in October, Johnson admits to depending more on his girlfriend, who has qualified as a masseuse. "Zara massages my leg every day. She has qualified as a sports masseuse and it has made a huge difference to the speed of my recovery," he says.

Zara interrupts: "There was a lot of internal bruising, so what I had to do was get the blood moving and draw the bruises out. If it has helped Richard I am delighted, but any good masseuse could have done the job as well."

The couple share their £400,000 house in Gloucestershire with Johnson's labrador Callie. Zara's horse Dingbat is stabled outside. "We keep a close circle of friends and prefer our own company to the bright lights," Johnson says.

"In the evenings we tend to just veg out in front of the television like any normal couple. We both prefer the quiet life here in the Cotswolds. I am a homebird and so is Zara."