Mike Tindall on his nose, his royal in-laws and The Jump
The former England captain and Zara Phillips' husband on why he's risking all for a reality TV show...
Which presumably means he and Zara pay rent on the Bothy, their home with one-year-old daughter Mia. It's part of 730-acre Gatcombe Park, the Gloucestershire manor bought by the Queen in 1976 as a present for Princess Anne and her first husband, Mark Phillips.
Her Majesty picked up the tab for the nearby Aston Farm, with 600 acres, in 1977, where Captain Phillips has lived since the couple’s 1992 divorce. Land Registry documents show that, since 2010, Aston Farm has actually been co-owned by ex-racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart (married to one of Zara’s godmothers), Andrew Parker-Bowles (ex-husband of Camilla) and Lord Stafford. It’s thought the trio act as trustees on behalf of Zara and her brother Peter.
But professional sportsmen need to do something when they retire, so perhaps it’s understandable that Tindall might have to tout himself around reality shows like The Jump. He has already filmed a two-week ITV survival show with Bear Grylls, but how far into the reality TV mire is the husband of the 15th in line to the throne prepared to wade?
Strictly? “Never say never.” I’m A Celebrity? “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t find me in the jungle.” Celebrity Big Brother? “Another show you probably wouldn’t get me on.”
Does he have to get permission from the royals to do this kind of thing? “No, another lie. They’re separate from us; we run our own life.” Do you think about how things might reflect on them? “That would always come up, yes, of course, but ultimately it’s what we want to do first.”
That independent spirit was evident in their decision to sell the first pictures of their daughter to Hello! magazine. Tindall reveals that he and Zara won’t be following Prince William and Kate in having a second child quickly, due to Zara’s equestrian career. “We’ve got an Olympics in Rio to deal with first,” he says.
The Mia photographs sold for a reported £150,000, provoking a predictable outcry from some sections of the press. “Zara faces a dilemma,” pondered the Daily Mail. “Is she a royal or a B-list celebrity?” Tindall is unrepentant. “We had those photos done for ourselves, and decided to release them instead of having people camped outside our house.
What’s the big deal? Should we just let people follow us around in cars? It was an easy way of solving it.” Maybe it was the cash people found grubby? “Everyone has their own opinion.”
