Princess Anne’s daughter has made some very rare comments about the difficulties facing the royal family in the wake of Prince Harry’s decision to give an explosive interview to the BBC

Zara was once very close to her cousin Harry(Image: WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Days after Prince Harry gave another bombshell interview, his cousin Zara Tindall has spoken about the ‘struggles’ facing the royal family.

Harry is all but estranged from King Charles and Prince William after taking multiple swipes against his family in his book, interviews and TV shows. And now Zara has shared an insight on some of the drama going on behind the scenes.

Speaking at a London Sporting Club lunch last week, the 43-year-old daughter of Princess Anne addressed the perception of royal life from the outside. “It is very hard to see from the outside but, 100 per cent, it is a family that is still going through the same struggles other people do,” Zara said, as reported in The Sun. “Whether they are relationships, obviously it is very easy to see every day. We’re still very supportive of each other.”

Zara and Harry were once very close – but his decision to continue to air his grievances against his family have fractured the majority of his relationships. Zara and her family still have a very strong bond with the Wales family, however, with Mike Tindall forming a touching ‘brotherly relationship’ with Prince William.

Royal commentator Dickie Arbiter, a former Palace press secretary, believes their tight connection comes down to their similar personalities. “Mike is a pretty straight guy,” he told the Telegraph. “He’s down to earth, and William is too… They are two peas from the same pod, they’ve just had different upbringings. We’ve seen [this] time and again in William and Mike’s interactions. They are a proper family. They’re not playing at it,” he noted.

Mike also gets on really well with Princess Kate; she famously appeared with William on Mike’s The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast. And the two families love nothing more than spending time together, along with their young children.

Proud dad Mike, who is also a father of three, has developed a very sweet bond with George, Charlotte and Louis. He was seen showing his playful side when he made an ‘I’m watching you’ gesture to Prince Louis at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. And he was pictured putting an affectionate arm around George’s shoulders on Christmas Day 2023, while his daughter Mia walked hand-in-hand with beaming Louis.

It comes after Prince Harry came under fire for giving an explosive interview to the BBC after losing his legal bid to have his UK police protection reinstated He said that there had been “so many disagreements” in the family, but the “only thing that’s left” is the row over his security – which he said had “always been the sticking point”.

“There is no point in continuing to fight anymore, life is precious,” he added. Harry also touched on the health of King Charles – something he has been heavily criticised for. The 76-year-old is undergoing treatment for cancer. Harry said: “I don’t know how much longer my father has – he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff but it would be nice to reconcile.”

He added “some members of my family will never forgive me” for writing his memoir Spare, and went on to say: “It would be nice to have that reconciliation part now. If they don’t want that, that’s entirely up to them.”