'The greatest': Princess Beatrice breaks Twitter hiatus to celebrate Mike Tindall
Mike Tindall has received a seal of approval from his cousin-in-law, Princess Beatrice, after appearing on the latest season of I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!.
After the former England rugby star placed fourth on the reality show set in the Australian jungle Beatrice, who is the first cousin of Tindall's wife Zara Tindall (née Phillips), broke her year-long Twitter hiatus to praise the 44-year-old.
“He is just the greatest @miketindall13,” Beatrice wrote. The last time she tweeted was on October 1, 2021 to announce the birth of her daughter, Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi.
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Tindall’s relationship with the Royal Family began when he met Anne’s daughter and the Queen’s granddaughter, Zara Tindall, during the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia. The pair married eight years later in 2011, just two months after Zara’s cousin, the now-Prince of Wales married the Princess of Wales.
His relationship with the royals appears to have been one of ease. Tindall previously told the Telegraph before the Queen’s death: “I've always felt part of it and I think that's down to what an amazing woman the Queen is. They're a fantastic family.”
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Earlier this year on his podcast, The Good, The Bad, and The Rugby, Tindall said his highlight of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was a cousins’ lunch he attended, likely with Beatrice present.
But it’s not just Beatrice who Tindall is close to. Zara, 41, has long had a close relationship with her cousin, Prince William, 40, as the pair are close in age, and this friendship has extended to Tindall and William’s wife Kate Middleton as well.
Tindall even revealed they have a “family WhatsApp group” and that he wanted to mock Kate for her rugby skills when she became the new Patron of the Rugby Football Union at the beginning of 2022.
Speaking on his podcast, he said: “I text Ellis [Genge] and said, ‘Mate, please tell me anything she messed up on’, so I could sort of, family WhatsApp group, get into her.
“And he said, ‘No she was actually pretty good, and she was really good at kicking’. But she has this competitive nature where she has to be good at things.”
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Tindall was also pictured at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June directing a joking “I’m watching you” hand gesture to William and Kate’s youngest child, Prince Louis, four, who was pulling funny faces.
During his I’m A Celeb appearance, Tindall also revealed that he knew William and Prince Harry before he met Zara, as he’d met them through various rugby-related events.
Tindall's relationship with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex also appears to be a close one, with the ex-rugby star saying that he jokingly “punched” Harry while they celebrated the 2003 world cup win.
Read more: Zara and Mike Tindall's relationship in pictures
Speaking during an appearance on A Question of Sport in 2021, Tindall said he “thought it would be amusing to throw a few punches” to see how Harry’s security team would react. He added that it took “just a few seconds” for Harry’s security officers to pin him to the ground.
Fast-forward to the Sussex’s wedding in 2018, and Tindall gave a nod of approval to Meghan Markle, saying: “The best thing about the Royal Family is that they are so lovely and they’ll spot the people who are looking a little bit nervous and go straight over and take away all of that tension straight out of the room.
“It's a special day for them both, and as long as they get a quiet moment during the day and actually have enjoyed the day that's what I wish for them, and hopefully they'll live happily ever after.”
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