Mike Tindall found himself in a bit of royal hot water after making a cutting joke about Prince Harry. The ex-rugby player, who is married to Harry's cousin Zara Tindall, stirred up a minor controversy with his cheeky comment made after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from royal duties in 2020. This incident is recounted in a new book titled 'The Good, the Bad and the Rugby — Unleashed,' which Tindall co-wrote with his podcast co-hosts James Haskell and Alex Payne.
Haskell, a longtime friend of Tindall, writes, 'He [Tindall] even got into a bit of trouble when he appeared on a live version of 'A Question of Sport,' where he shared a story about him and Iain Balshaw pretending to punch Prince Harry at a post-World Cup final party in 2003 and joked that the royal family wanted to fill him in for real.' 'I say trouble but it was a bit of a minor kerfuffle, nothing to write home about,' he added, according to The Mirror. However, Haskell noted that the situation might have been forgotten if Harry and Meghan's biographer Omid Scobie hadn't escalated the issue.
After hearing Tindall's joke, Scobie took to social media to defend the Duke of Sussex, sparking widespread social media backlash. Nonetheless, Haskell acknowledged that Tindall 'gives zero f–ks' about such matters. '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 [Tindall], especially about him wanting to fill in a young, defenseless Harry,' he wrote. 'All context, sarcasm and humor lost, when things are taken out of the zone they were meant to be in,' reports The Mirror. 'To be fair to Tins he gives zero f–ks about stuff like that, but it's very annoying for him,' he added. 'I think we all know that American royal fans are f–king nuts, especially Scobieites.'
The Post has reached out to representatives for Harry and Tindall for comment. In other parts of the book, Tindall offers insights into life within the palace, asserting that it's far from the glamorous portrayal seen on TV. 'I'm sometimes asked if the Queen embraced informality like 'normal' people, and the answer to that is yes,' he wrote about the late Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away in September 2022 at age 96. 'Her life wasn't like an episode of 'Downton Abbey,' with meals on long tables and everyone dressed in their finest 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.' 'Lunches were also relaxed, especially in Scotland, where lunch would often be heading out into the open space of the Scottish Highlands for a picnic,' he continued.
Tindall also reflected on what it was like to marry into the royal family. 'Believe it or not, marrying into the royal family was pretty easy for me,' said Tindall, who wed Princess Anne's daughter Zara in 2011. 'They were always nice to me, and I was always nice to them. Simple really.'
Source link: https://nypost.com
