Mike Tindall facts: Rugby star's age, children and how he met wife Zara revealed

4 May 2023, 11:45

Mike Tindall is perhaps the most unlikely member of the Royal Family, having married Zara Phillips in 2011.

So how did Mike and Zara meet and what did he achieve during his rugby career?

Here are all the important facts you need to know, following Mike's stint in the jungle for I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2022:

1. Who is Mike Tindall?

   

   Mike Tindall is an English former rugby union player.

   He played outside centre for Bath and Gloucester, and won 75 caps for England between 2000 and 2011. He was also a member of the England squad which won the 2003 World Cup.

   He married Zara Phillips, the daughter of Princess Anne, and the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2011.

2. How old is Mike Tindall and where is he from?

   Mike Tindall was born October 18, 1978, in Otley, West Yorkshire. He celebrated his 44th birthday in 2022.

   He is the son of Linda Shepherd, a social worker, and Philip Tindall, a banker for Barclays.

   He was educated at the private school Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield.

3. How did he meet Zara Phillips?

   

   Zara, who had previously been in an on-off relationship with jockey Richard Johnson, revealed she met her now husband at the Manly Wharf bar in Sydney during the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

   Speaking to Australian TV show 60 Minutes, Zara said the rugby star was feeling down after being dropped from the England squad before the semi-finals.

   "It kind of went from there," she said.

   Mike later told the Daily Mail: "She was on her gap year and in Australia with friends. Clive (Woodward, the coach) had just told me I was dropped for the semi-final, so I went out for a beer with two others who weren't playing, Martin Corry and Austin Healey.

   "Zara was in the same bar; we got introduced but didn't speak that much. Later on, Austin gave me her number and said, 'She wants you to text her, to say where you're all going out after the final so she can come along.'"

   Tindall text her and when they were back in the UK, a relationship began. Zara invited him to join her at the North Cotswold Ball, before things reached "the next level".

   The relationship became "official" in April 2004. "I think it was April 27 - that would be the official date we said we were going to go out with each other," he said.

4. How many children do they have?

   

   In January 2014, Zara gave birth to a baby girl at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. The couple named their daughter Mia Grace Tindall.

   Two of Zara's pregnancies sadly ended in miscarriage, but they welcomed their second daughter, Lena Elizabeth Tindall, in June 2018.

   Their third child, son Lucas Philip, was born in March 2021 at the family home in Gatcombe Park.