A brand new book, written by Mike Tindall and his rugby podcast co-hosts, has hit shelves today and in it, his co-author James Haskell reveals how his pal deals with public scrutiny given his royal connections

Mike Tindall’s podcast co-host has revealed how he deals with public scrutiny given his connection to the Royal Family saying he gives ‘zero f***s’.

It comes as Mike, a former England rugby player who is married to Zara Tindall, the daughter of Princess Anne and a niece of King Charles, has released a book with his podcast co-hosts James Haskell and Alex Payne. In the book called ‘The Good, the Bad & the Rugby – Unleashed’, Mike’s royal connections are explored with James recalling an incident where Mike made a brutal joke about Prince Harry after his dramatic decision to quit as a working royal.

Mike Tindall with his rugby podcast co-host James Haskell ( 
Image:
Dave Benett/Getty Images for BGC Group)

James reveals that Mike landed in trouble after telling a story at a live event about how he pretended to punch Harry at a rugby World Cup party in 2003 – and joked that the “royal family wanted to fill him in for real”.

The comments then went viral on social media with James saying the incident came “back into public consciousness” due to Harry and Meghan Markle’s biographer pal, Omid Scobie. And writing in the book, released today, 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. I think we all know that American royal fans are f***ing nuts, especially Scobieites.” Meanwhile, elsewhere in the book, Mike opens up about what the late Queen was really like and addressed the ‘drama’ surrounding the Royal Family.

The former England rugby star married wife Zara, the late monarch’s granddaughter 13 years ago and the pair have three children together. Although neither are working royals, the pair are known to be close to several members of the Firm, including the Prince and Princess of Wales and attend most 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. Lunches were also relaxed, especially up in Scotland, where lunch would often be heading out into the open space of the Scottish Highlands for a picnic.

“There’s a great picture of my daughter Mia sitting with the Duke of Edinburgh that captures exactly what those afternoons were like: members of a very close family who loved each other dearly spending precious time together. Yes, there’s a lot of drama surrounding the royal family, but they aren’t much different to anyone else underneath it all.”

Yorkshireman Mike also divulges the royals all understood where he came from and says he was accepted ‘completely’. He adds: “Believe it or not, marrying into the royal family was pretty easy for me. They were always nice to me, and I was always nice to them. Simple really.”

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