THE ROYALS NEXT DOOR
THE QUEEN’S ELDEST GRANDDAUGHTER HAS NO TITLE, A DOWN-TOEARTH HUSBAND AND IS RAISING HER GIRLS OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT
It could have been any two families enjoying a day out in the English countryside: parents hoisting small children on their shoulders, rosy-cheeked cousins, plenty of room to roam in the sunshine. But the young families gathered together that spring afternoon last year just happened to include two future kings as well as the Queen’s oldest granddaughter. First cousins Prince William and Zara Tindall shared an easy rapport as William hoisted up his goddaughter Mia Tindall, 6, while Mia’s dad (and Zara’s husband) Mike held William’s son Prince George, 7.
If the bond between Zara, 39, and William, 38, seemed surprisingly casual, it’s because it dates back nearly four decades – when William and his brother Prince Harry would enjoy playdates at Zara’s childhood home, Gatcombe Park. With William’s own childhood based in the far more structured Kensington Palace and Highgrove House, he “rather liked the controlled chaos of Gatcombe”, recalls former royal bodyguard Ken Wharfe. “Zara’s home was a well-lived-in place.
It was less royal.”
That “less royal” lifestyle is one Zara has embraced since her parents – Queen Elizabeth’s only daughter, Princess Anne, 70, and champion equestrian Mark Phillips, 72 – asked the Queen not to grant royal titles to Zara and her brother Peter, 42. (Anne and Mark divorced in 1992.)
“I think it made us fight harder
… to try and be as successful as we could be, so we’re very grateful to her not giving us a title anyway,”
Zara recently said in the ITV documentary about her mother,
Anne: The Princess Royal at 70. For Zara, the unorthodox move brought the freedom to pursue her love of competitive horseriding and to build a vibrant life alongside Mike, a former professional rugby player.
Refreshingly accessible compared to their royal relatives, the couple share a playful spirit (Zara has been caught on camera giving her husband a flirty squeeze) and a relaxed relatability. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mike has opened up on everything from the couple’s attempts at lockdown “date nights” to the challenges of homeschooling Mia and her 2-year-old sister Lena. “I get to be a teacher in the mornings, which is sometimes really nice, sometimes really frustrating,” he told the Daily Telegraph in May.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain with Lorraine Kelly, he shared that he struggled to plan something special for his and Zara’s ninth wedding anniversary back in July. “You don’t normally ever plan a date night,” he said of pre-pandemic
life. “You just do it instantaneously. Now you have to plan!”
Still, both Zara and Mike have excelled at going with the flow throughout their lives. The daughter of two devoted equestrians, Zara “was brought up with the belief that if you fall off your horse, you get back on – with no tears in public”, says a source who observed her childhood years during occasional public outings. “That’s the ethos she was brought up in, and it’s the same as the Queen and Prince Philip’s ethos.”
Zara’s rough-and-tumble husband – who had his famously rugby-broken nose fixed in 2018 – was also raised to roll with the punches. The son of a bank manager father and social worker mother, Mike “has stood at the top of the world in one of the world’s most exciting games”, says Will Cook, CEO of Cure Parkinson’s Trust, a charity Mike has backed in the wake of his father’s own battle with the disease. “That brings confidence, and people respect that.”
The couple met in a Sydney bar in 2003, where Zara gave her number to one of his teammates asking Mike to call. With both of their sports careers in the midst of various highs and lows, they shared an understanding of “the pressures and vice versa”, Zara has said. Soon Mike would be a fixture at her side as she became a champion and achieved her Olympic dreams. “You don’t get that response from a horse unless you’re at one with it,” says a source who watched her ride for decades.
Three years after the couple’s wedding in 2011, they welcomed daughter Mia. In the years that followed, Zara suffered two miscarriages – one in 2016, just a month after the couple had excitedly released news of the pregnancy, and a second early in her first trimester. “You need to go through a period where you don’t talk about it because it’s too raw, but as with everything, time’s a great healer,” Zara told the Sunday Times soon after Lena was born in 2018.
Given their non-royal status, the couple don’t receive British taxpayer funds. Mike makes his living as a sports commentator, and Zara earns corporate sponsorships through her riding. Of course, there are perks of being in the royal family, including the farmhouse they call home on Princess Anne’s estate. A notorious non-sufferer of fools, Anne has been “softened” since becoming a grandma, says royal photographer Mark Stewart.
When the pandemic restrictions lift again in the UK, the couple will be free to resume their routine of impromptu date nights, picking up groceries at the local Waitrose and dropping Mia at school.
They “don’t want a lot of the things that come with being in their position”, says Matt Hampson, whose foundation – for young people injured in sports – is supported by Mike. “They are simply friendly and approachable.”