In the past two years, people have been trying to make “Mike Tindall and Prince William are BFFs” into a storyline. There’s a tortured history there, one which I’ve detailed previously – when Prince Harry married Meghan, suddenly Mike and Zara felt like they had to “choose” which side they were on, Team Harry or Team William. The Tindalls sided with William, although Zara had always been close to both of her cousins for years. In any case, Mike and William’s weird friendship blossomed, in the tabloids at least. It felt like Mike was being tasked to do some of William’s dirty work, and Mike was always good for some performative friendship tasks. Look, Harry, we don’t need you anymore! Well, Mike was once again chatting about his royal relations in a recent podcast and he shared his nickname for William.
Mike Tindall has revealed he calls Prince William ‘One Pint Willy’ because ‘he is not the best of drinkers’. The ex-England rugby star also admits he and his wife Zara call each other ‘munchkin’, while she has her husband saved in her phone as a nickname ending in ‘kitten’. The Tindalls made the revelations in a special podcast with rugby league legend Rob Burrow, who is battling motor neurone disease.
Asked by Burrow if he has any nicknames for any of the royals, Mike says: ‘For the Prince of Wales, he is known as One Pint Willy. He is known to me as One Pint Willy because he is not the best of drinkers, coming from a sport where it is built on the social aspect and a couple of beers being sunk quite often. That is one I will give away for the Prince of Wales.’
Zara can be heard laughing before saying: ‘Oh my god. You are in so much trouble.’
Burrow also quizzed the couple on whether they have any pet names for each other. Mike says: ‘We basically call each other munchkins a lot. I don’t know why that started but it has stuck. I will let Zara decide whether she wants to give away what I am down in her phone as…’
Zara replies: ‘He is in my phone as something else and it ends with kitten.’
I feel like I’m missing something in the American vs. British drinking culture language. Does “One Pint Willy” mean that William will only have one pint when they have a night out, or is the nickname indicative of William’s lightweight drinking status? As in, he only has one pint because that’s all it takes for him to get drunk? Does “not the best of drinkers” mean that he simply doesn’t drink much or that he’s a bad drunk? It’s like he’s speaking in code, especially since we know that William has, historically, enjoyed getting sh-tfaced. Never forget the drunken “dad-dancing” in Verbier in 2017, when William had a lads-only trip on Commonwealth Day.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stand with pints of Guinness in their hands as they visit soldiers of the 1st battalion Irish Guards in their canteen following their St Patricks day parade at Cavalry Barracks, Hounslow on Friday, 17th March 2017. 350 soldiers marched onto the Parade Square at Cavalry Barracks led by their mascot, the Irish Wolfhound Domhnall. The Duchess then presented the shamrock to Officers and Warrant Officers, who in turn issued it along the ranks. The parade concluded with a march-past where His Royal Highness will take the salute.,Image: 516086299, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS- Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge enjoy a pint of Guinness after attending the St Patrick’s Day parade at Cavalry Barracks in Hounslow, where she presented shamrock to officers and guardsmen of 1st Battalion the Irish Guards.,Image: 535611905, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Mike Tindall, Zara Tindall at the Platinum Party at the Palace Concert held at Buckingham Palace in London as part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations.,Image: 697107897, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Alpha Press / Avalon
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- ALDERSHOT, ENGLAND – MARCH 17: Prince William, Prince of Wales meets with members of the Irish Guards and enjoys a glass of Guinness after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at Mons Barracks on March 17, 2023 in Aldershot, England. Catherine, Princess of Wales attends the parade for the first time as Colonel of the Regiment succeeding The Prince of Wales, the outgoing Colonel.,Image: 763503449, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- ALDERSHOT, ENGLAND – MARCH 17: Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales laughing and enjoying a glass of Guinness after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at Mons Barracks on March 17, 2023 in Aldershot, England. Catherine, Princess of Wales attends the parade for the first time as Colonel of the Regiment succeeding The Prince of Wales, the outgoing Colonel.,Image: 763503654, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales at the Dog and Duck pub in Soho ahead of this weekend’s coronation. Pictured: Prince William drinks a pint of cider as he chats to local business people inside the Dog and Duck pub.,Image: 773852202, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Mike Tindall and Zara Tindall at the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774203408, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- Princess Anne, Princess Royal, and Prince William, Prince of Wales attend the recording of a special episode of The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, on September 06, 2023 in Windsor, England. The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast included TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales, and The Princess Royal, in their respective roles as Patrons of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), the Rugby Football Union (RFU), and the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), to mark the start of the Rugby World Cup. The podcast is co-hosted by Mike Tindall, James Haskell (to the left of Mike in the images) and Alex Payne. NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS,Image: 804353203, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Mike Tindall, Princess Anne, Princess Royal, Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales attend the recording of a special episode of The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, on September 06, 2023 in Windsor, England. The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast included TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales, and The Princess Royal, in their respective roles as Patrons of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), the Rugby Football Union (RFU), and the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), to mark the start of the Rugby World Cup. The podcast is co-hosted by Mike Tindall, James Haskell (to the left of Mike in the images) and Alex Payne. NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS,Image: 804353253, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
I’m interpreting it as – he’s a lightweight, as in he only needs one pint to get drunk but he’s not “best of drinkers” meaning he keeps going and it gets messy. Like he’s not someone who knows he’s good after one pint, he has multiple and it gets out of hand very quickly.
all this podcasting is weird if our speculations in the other post are correct.
Leaving it ambiguous is bad. If he were a non-drinker I would actually think that would be worth a statement explaining. Sloppy drunk (and I’m guessing ragaholic abusive drunk) is not an impression I would ever want to leave out there
Leaving it ambiguous is bad, because here, everyone will jump to the worst conclusion and then some. I have no idea what any royal of celebrities are really like. They could all just be normal humans with inevitable shades of good and bad caught in a shit system or real assholes, but wow, this site just jumps all over the negative constantly. I just want us all to take a second and think about how unhappy it makes us all to be venomous toward other people, and I mean everyone, whether it be Harry, Meagan, William, Kate, or whoever, and be so sure of our negative opinions and air them daily.
Oh I know. However this is his cousin, who WILL HIMSELF has endorsed as his close friend recently. It’s not a press rumor. It’s Will’s close buddy describing direct experience. And trying to make it sound funny. But, it’s not funny. If one of Meg’s half sister (the one she’s close with) were to say she’s a sloppy drunk, I’d want some kind of explanation. That’s what’s happened here.
@anonima
Yeah….no. Miss us with this faux ‘be kind’ bullshite. You cant even get Meghan’s name right so we know which rock you crawled out from.
I don’t think its that ambiguous actually. If someone said to me “thats one pint Billy” I’d know immediately what they meant – drunk after one drink and then keeps going.
I know lots of people who do start to feel it after one drink and as a result they drink that first drink slowly and its usually their only drink. No one calls them anything.
one pint willy? yeah he gets messy real fast.
Kingston – it’s not faux. I really mean it, and I mean being kind to everyone. I’m not on any aside. And computers often create typos, like how they changed “royals or celebrities” to royal of celebrities, and mine wanted to type Meagan because I have a friend by that name.
Are you ok?
“One Pint Willy” definitely means he can’t hold his alcohol.
That’s how I understand it, too.
It pretty much all translates to “he’s a lightweight”.
Edit: I just remembered the stories/rumours how Kate used to “drink Will and Harry under the table” and how Will was a bigger party animal than Harry, but was better protected.
William an especially lightweight, as UK beer is less potent than the German types of beer, which are more common in the US.
I think it’s he is a lightweight and one puts him over the top. Doesn’t mean he stops at one but probably should. I find this funny considering I have seen a snippet of video with Peg getting Cants attention by waving at her and doing the drink to mouth and him saying keep drinking with a thumbs up and a nasty smirk.
So Meghan can say that Kate is a good person and gets bad press for years after. Tindall makes fun of PW and gets a simple “this is what he said” article?
And definitely TMI about their pet names for each other. If Harry and Meghan did a podcast like this, tabloid heads would explode. 🤯😱
This. Dear God. He is the tackiest, most low brow member of that family and shares all kinds of things that theoretically he should not-and where is the outrage?!
ITA! No class and ugly as an old boot on top of it.
This. Well said, equality.
This goes counter to the gossip we’ve all heard for years that he’s a BIG drinker, including the time he broke a tooth at a wedding from partying…after which Kate refused to accompany him to any other weddings…hmmm.
A cleanup for William’s image to match the “Sexy Bald Dad Ready to Boogie” copy we’ve had for months? and Mike knowing where his bread is buttered, especially if he’s about to get a divorce settlement? The plot thickens…
It could be that he’s a big drinker, but also that he’s a bad drunk after only one pint.
I think it’s because he turns into a rage drinker — he strikes me as someone with no filter at the best of times but when he’s had a pint or two he becomes completely unsufferable.
Jaded, my thoughts exactly
Yep. They’re trying to reboot his image, but it’s not going to work. There’s too much evidence.
William probably can drink okay but not as much as British pub culture expects him to. I know that when we have business meetings with people from the UK, most of them, especially the men, drink way more than we would when it is just North American people.
And coming from a rugby guy like Mike, he’s probably a functioning alcoholic and thinks William is a lightweight.
I suspect it’s a cover story. We know he drinks a lot. He might be a messy drunk, that’s probably the implication. He’s no one pint.
LOL, one pint Willy? Between this and PWT, I don’t know which describes him more?
It means William can’t hold his liquor. Remember when the press pretended that they didn’t know that William’s nickname was Willy.
‘kitten” ?????
I did not get this one either.
I think it means he’s in there as “sex kitten”. I feel gross just typing that out, LOL.
Yah that was my thought too. He is sooooo gross………I had guessed these two might have been the ones on the rocks but I guess not. I will never get what she sees in him (yes I know she’s not a great person either but he is just awful).
@BayTampaBay I thought “surely Zara doesn’t have Mike listed as sex kitten in her phone” then I felt nauseated at the idea…
I clearly need more coffee and stronger glasses, I absolutely read that as One Pump Willy.
Lol x1000
LMAO!!!!!
LOL, it’s like one of those “dumb bro” comedies – Solesy and One Pint Willy.
Solesy?
@Arthistorian, Solesy was the nickname given to MT from the rugby podcast guy from yesterday’s rugby podcast stories here.
Does it mean anything?
^ sex kitten?! I think that’s a thing?? Gross on so many levels…
Anyway as for supposedly being a lightweight, I’m sure drunkorexic Kate makes up for that. Crack baby, anyone?
Tindall grosses me out. He just seems so uncouth. And, yes, TMI from him and Zara.
Mike Tindall is an utter buffoon.
So Mike and Zara are the least private couple of all the couples in the royal family.
Tindall is so gross. I think the “One Pint Willy” name is that he is a lightweight when it comes to liquor and it only takes one pint for him to be drunk. That’s my take.
Geez. Shut up Mike.
Mike T. is an ex jock who married into the BRF and then was publicly caught cheating on his wife within weeks of the marriage.
Dirtbag. His “One of the lads” shtick is not fooling anybody.
And you know, Mike and Zara will be in the Xmas church photo w/Team William.
Mike is a total sell out to William and Williams money + FK trumps all for Mike and Zara.
William seems like he’d be a mean drunk.
I feel like he probably gets meaner and meaner with every drink but probably just thinks he gets funnier and funnier.
100%.
He’s trying to make out that William is a light weight and after one pint he’s tipsy, instead of admitting that William is punchy when he’s had a drink (just ask his bodyguards) can’t hold his liquor and only avoids terrible press because it’s all covered up for him. The stories of him pssd in nightclubs and getting into scraps are many fold as are the instances of trying to score some female attention and being shown out the door by the same bodyguards, to the sounds of female laughter.
So William can’t hold his liquor? Way to go Mike. You just told enemies of the UK that they can get its future head of state good and drunk and compromise him. MI5 (or 6) must be thrilled with you.
William has a history of traumatic head injury. Of course, he’ll be more vulnerable to the disinhibiting effects of alcohol.
true, but he has also always been awful. I can’t imagine that drinking would make it any better. quite the opposite.
Everything Mike says about willie and keen is signed off by them, so I’m guessing this is supposed to make Willie look relatable, like he’s just your everyday guy you’d go for a pint with. I doubt ‘one pint willie’ has ever been to a normal pub for a drink with his mates in the last 20 years.
I don’t think so.
Billy boy just tolerates Tindall because he has to. Nobody wants Tindall to go rogue.
I can tell from Billy’s body language when he is around Tindall that he cannot stand him. They are polar opposites. The bromance is a media invention.
Tindall’s rugby career is over the only thing he has to sell is being in the royal family by marriage.
UK person here, and yep I’d definitely read this as meaning he’s a bad drunk, as in he can’t take his drink. Which is interesting because there are certainly rumours to that effect about PW (that incident where he broke his tooth for example, wasn’t the story that he was incapable drunk at a wedding?).
The BRF all seem to be big boozers. Strong cocktails are reportedly the drink of choice for most of them. I suppose they don’t have much else to fill their days with.
Tindall is an oaf though, and always has his nose up PW’s backside.
So much weird and random information in that first paragraph from the Daily Heil piece. Like Stefon from SNL was writing it. It almost made me want to click on a link.
People who are new to the American tabloids messed a funny Era. Prince William would get his picture taken drunk a lot. He did look like a lightweight. It looked like he didn’t like being loopy. Those pictures was hysterical. Too bad the royals started scrubbing and editing photos off the internet. Just try to find Windsor Flappers – that’s what prince Margaret called their big ears.
I want to be on the record giving a massive *HORK* at the implication that Zara has Mike’s number saved in her phone as ‘s3x kitten’
Brit here – drinking culture amongst rugby players is HUGE. It usually starts at university, they partake in some of the most disgusting drinking game forfeits and often get black out drunk or drink until they are sick. It’s vile. MT is probably referring to Wills probably not being able to keep up with the rugby lads.
LOL William is going to be seething over this, because “One Pint Willy” is going to stick as a snarky nickname to be used online and in tabloids over and over for years to come. I mean, what was this idiot thinking saying that about the future King of England, who can ice you out at a moment’s notice when you fall out of favor?
He acts like they are best buds, which they are not, and that he’s just talking about the average guy, not next in line to the throne, someone who is obsessive about what is put out there about him in publications and online sites. I bet Zara knew, thinking, “Ruh-oh, Mike just put his foot into his big mouth. I wonder what the punishment will be from William.”