This week, Mike Tindall’s brand new book, written with his rugby podcast co-hosts, hit the shelves.
With many keen to see what insights it would hold into the royals lives, its release was much anticipated.
James Haskell, one of the co-authors, revealed how Mike deals with public criticism due to his Royal Family links – claiming Mike gives “zero f****”.
The book, called ‘The Good, the Bad & the Rugby – Unleashed’, includes some details about Mike’s connections to the royals.
Mike Tindall is married to Zara Tindall, the daughter of Princess Anne and a niece of King Charles.
In one of the chapters, James recalls an incident where Mike made a joke involving Prince Harry.
According to the book, Mike was targeted by online criticism for telling a story at a live event about how he pretended to punch the Duke of Sussex at a rugby World Cup party in 2003, before joking that the “Royal Family wanted to fill him in for real.”
The comments, coming at a time of strained relations between some Firm members and the duke, went viral with James saying the incident came “back into public consciousness” due to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s unofficial biographer, Omid Scobie.
Writing in this book, James said about the incident: “It did come back into public consciousness when that very odd bloke Omid Scobie started sticking up for Harry and Meghan, and loads of trolls went in on Tins, especially about him wanting to fill in a young, defenceless Harry.
“All context, sarcasm and humour lost, when things are taken out of the zone they were meant to be in.
“To be fair to Tins he gives zero f***s about stuff like that, but it’s very annoying for him. Royal fans can be mental.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the book, Mike opens up about what the late Queen, Elizabeth II, was really like.
The former England rugby star married wife Zara, the late monarch’s granddaughter, 13 years ago and the pair have three children together. Neither are working royals but they do attend high-profile royal events.
In the new book, there is a whole chapter dedicated to royalty – and in it Mike attempts to set the record straight about what life being part of the Firm is like – and what he experienced spending time with the late Queen.
He writes: “I’m sometimes asked if the Queen did informality like ‘normal’ people, and the answer to that is yes. Her life wasn’t like an episode of Downton Abbey, with meals on long tables and everyone dressed in their finery every night, and Zara and I would often watch the racing with her on TV, as I’m sure lots of people reading this have done with their gran.”
He went on to say the royals “aren’t much different to anyone else underneath it all.”
