From the rugby discipline to the palace! Former professional athlete Mike Tindall turned a member of the royal household after his marriage ceremony to Zara Tindall (née Phillips).
Zara is the one daughter of Princess Anne and her ex-husband, Captain Mark Phillips. The twosome — who divorced in 1992 — additionally share son Peter Phillips. Zara and her brother are the 2 eldest grandchildren of the late Queen Elizabeth II and the late Prince Philip, who died in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
When Mike met Zara at a pub in Australia in 2003, he was immediately smitten together with her no matter her royal standing.
“I’m by no means a ahead planner. I don’t suppose that far forward,” the previous rugby participant advised the Day by day Mail in June 2011 of not realizing who his in-laws could be when he started courting his now-wife. “I feel [my mom] was nonetheless a little bit bit shocked, however [both of my parents] had been each tremendous with it.”
He added on the time: “My grandma was a bit extra nervous as a result of for her era the royal household is huge. She was anxious whether or not it was the suitable factor for me.”
Mike finally proposed to Zara in December 2010, and so they wed one 12 months later at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. The couple have since welcomed three kids: Mia, Lena and Lucas.
Amid their royal romance, Mike has gotten a front-row seat to a number of historic occasions alongside Zara and their children. The pair have incessantly stepped out with the royals for annual Christmas and Easter companies, in addition to the respective funerals for the late queen and Philip. Mike and the Olympian additionally attended a number of celebratory occasions for Zara’s uncle King Charles III’s coronation in Might 2023.
The Tindalls had been seated subsequent to Peter within the fourth row in the course of the Westminster Abbey service.
“You’re within the hottest spot, however it was all taking place simply across the nook of wall which you can’t see,” Mike quipped throughout an episode of his “The Good, the Dangerous & the Rugby” podcast later that month. “It was unbelievable to be sat the place we had been. Fairly irritating that you just couldn’t see across the nook, however you had the TV there.”
He and Zara had been immediately behind her cousins Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
“It’s a type of moments,” Mike added on his podcast. “I feel one of the best little bit of the day was the six and half hours of army footmen that had been within the Buckingham Palace yard and so they did three cheers for the King — it was like whoa, goose pimples.”
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Scroll beneath to learn Mike’s most candid quotes about becoming a member of the royal household:
