Mike Tindall addresses how laborious Royal Family actually works and claims he is value £25m
Very few people get welcomed into the royal fold – but Mike Tindall is one of the select few.
The former England rugby international married into the Firm more than 13 years ago, when he wed wife Zara, the daughter of Princess Anne and a granddaughter of the late Queen. His unique position means he nearly always gets a front-row seat at all major royal events, but unlike some of his other royal in-laws, he is not a working royal.
Instead, he and Zara are free to earn money however they wish, with Mike co-hosting a successful rugby podcast, being an ambassador for several brands and even appearing on hit ITV show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, where he talked about his royal relatives.
And in his brand new book, The Good, The Bad & The Rugby – Unleashed, which he’s written with his podcast co-hosts Alex Payne and James Haskell, Mike has candidly opened up about money, dismissing claims he’s worth £25million and lifting the lid on how hard the likes of the King, the Prince and Princess of Wales and his mother-in-law Princess Anne really work.
He explains: “People think that working members of the royal family get up every day, shake a few hands, cut the odd ribbon, and not much more than that. But now I’ve seen behind the curtain, I know there’s a lot more to it than that. Being a working member of the royal family is all-consuming, you don’t have your own time or your own space. With us sitting outside the working royals it allows us to do things our way, which works better for us.
“It can be frustrating when you know the truth and other people simply aren’t interested in it, but you just have to live with it. In fact, that’s one of the royal family’s mottos: ‘Never explain, never complain.’ I try not to think about it, although it took me a long time to get to that point.”