There are certain moments, certain weeks, where I spy a theme among royal storylines. This week’s theme is: Prince Harry is the odd man out, everyone connected to the royal family hates Harry now, and Harry is presumably jealous of his brother for having good relationships with all of Harry’s old mates. Granted, that’s been a royal storyline for years, but it’s gotten new life this week because Peter Phillips apparently made a point of NOT inviting Harry to his wedding. There’s another story (which I’ll cover separately) about William watching football with all of Harry’s “old friends.” And now this: Mike Tindall mentioning on his rugby podcast that he used to know Harry “when he was fun.”
Mike Tindall has joked that he knew Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex “when he was fun”. The former rugby player made the comment as he talked at the Hay Festival about his wedding to Zara Phillips, daughter of the Princess Royal, in 2011.
Tindall was speaking at the literature and arts festival in Powys with James Haskell and Alex Payne, his co-hosts on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast. He expressed mock surprise that Haskell had not made an idiot of himself at the wedding, and joked: “A lot of other people managed that way better than you – [like] Harry, when he was fun.”
The Duke of Sussex is godfather to the Tindalls’ second daughter, Lena, but the friendship is reported to have cooled since the Sussexes moved to Montecito, California.
At the Hay session, which recreated the banter familiar to fans of the podcast, Tindall also made jokes about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. When Payne mentioned that Tindall was well-connected, thanks to his rugby credentials and the fact that “he’s got his own bedroom at Buckingham Palace”, Mr Tindall replied: “Opposite end to Andrew, though.”
He hinted that he may get in trouble for mentioning the disgraced former Duke of York, saying: “Backstage, they were like, ‘It’s being recorded, maybe stay away from [the subject of] Andrew tonight?’”
There were more gags about Mr Tindall’s royal connections. The former England centre had corrective rhinoplasty for his broken nose in 2018, and Haskell quipped: “Taxpayers’ money fixed it. It’s got the royal warrant if you look inside it.”
It’s not some brutal swipe or anything. It’s actually a reminder that the family expected Harry to play the clown forever, that Harry was never supposed to become a mature man who found love and got married and started his own family. Harry was supposed to be “the fun one,” the scamp, the jokester forever. Remember in 2023 & 2024 when Mike was seemingly auditioning to become the “new Harry,” and the British press kept going on and on about how Mike and Peter Phillips were William’s “surrogate brothers” and Mike was “the brother Prince William needs.” They’ll never be able to fill the Harry-shaped hole in the monarchy.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Peter Phillips, the Duchess of Sussex, the Duke of Sussex, Zara Tindall and Mike Tindall leave the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, on day two of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II. The National Service marks The Queen’s 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth. Public service is at the heart of the event and over 400 recipients of Honours in the New Year or Birthday Honours lists have been invited in recognition of their contribution to public life. Drawn from all four nations of the United Kingdom, they include NHS and key workers, teaching staff, public servants, and representatives from the Armed Forces, charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups.,Image: 696653435, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kirsty O’Connor / Avalon
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- Zara Tindall and Mike Tindall attends The Beauty Awards 2025 at City Central at HAC (Honourable Artillery Company) in London, England. UK. Monday 25th November 2025,Image: 1054491235, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: The Beauty Awards 2025, Credit line: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon
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- Zara Tindall and Mike Tindall at the Beauty Awards 2025 at City Central at HAC in City Of London, London, United Kingdom,Image: 1054562399, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley/Avalon
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- The Sovereign’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, London Featuring: Mike Tindall meets guests Where: London, United Kingdom When: 21 May 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Sovereign’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, London Featuring: Mike Tindall meets guests Where: London, United Kingdom When: 21 May 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Mike wants to stay fun. I wonder if zara appreciates that.
Firstly there is nothing funny about the Andrew story and Mike making jokes about it is disrespectful to the Epstein victims. Secondly, Harry is a father and husband in his 40s thank goodness he’s not still falling around drunk at weddings, that would be embarrassing!
Not everyone knows that the ever laddish Tindall has two criminal convictions for drink driving and some eyebrow-raising commercial activities. There’ve also been instances of inappropriate behaviour with other women and an alleged drunken ‘dwarf throwing’ party over the years. None of which involved Harry.
Peter Phillips if he did not invite harry would think perhaps he’s going to get honors from scooter. Did scoot try to tell peter to slow things down with Harriet and not rush into marriage.
There’s a definite niche in British culture for men (it’s always men) who are “clubbable” not like baby seals but people you’d want in your club. And some clubs are still all-male. It’s the home away from the old ball and chain. It’s amazing how the old-boy network has held this country hostage. When you grow up and grow out of it…. They take it personally.
Tindall is absolutely, positively clubbable, in the baby seal context. What an obnoxious a**hole.
That dingbat being invited to speak at a “literature and arts festival” is just . . . Wow.
And let’s mock a trafficker whose victims continue to suffer, shall we?
Such a loser.
Can’t stand Mike Tindall.
I remember another time he said something negative about harry on his show. I wish Zara would tell him to shut up about her family.
I think a lot of this week’s Harry’s the odd man out stuff is because of their anniversary video. They’ve had a busy productive year, and despite what the British media wants us to believe with our own lying eyes, they are not diminished in their impact, and he is clearly happy and in love with his wife.
I do think they expected Harry to be the clown, but I think that what really annoys them and why they don’t consider him ” fun” anymore, is that he’ll call them out on their biases and nonsense. For people like that, they always want to paint anyone that challenges their bigotry as being a party pooper, not fun, too serious, and other things to make it seem like what they’re doing or saying isn’t a big deal.
This guy has always come across to me as this type of person exactly, and he probably figures doing/saying this type of stuff endears him to William. Because at the end of the day they’re all singing for their supper.
So this bloke who cheats on his wife… who takes him back and has more children with him… Is using H&M for publicity, 😹 Hilarious and pathetic 😹
I thought he was going to talk about rugby. I wonder if zara liked seeing fun Mike making a,pass at the woman who worked for that reality show he went on. He needs to stop being a gossip to try to curry favor with scooter
Well we’re talking about him because he mentioned Harry so he got what he wanted out of the comment. I know he’s famous in his own right but he has also definitely leveraged his royal a connections to boost his public profile and this is no different.
This man is so cringe
I remember that he wanted a boy and said publicly he’d try.again for a son if the child was a girl. When zara went into labor suddenly he was thinking about watching sports with his son. Never mind zara being in labor
The only time this podcast gets any media attention is when he babbles about Harry.
The cockwomble has spoken. Enough said!!
the funny thing is I think he is still really fun. and they miss him, but can’t say that so they instead just focus on being mad or making fun of him. otherwise he’d talk about how much fun he has with william, but he doesn’t so instead he just has to miss having fun with harry.
Mike is forever crass and immature and inappropriate. He clearly resents Harry for growing up and being devoted to his wife. No wonder he prefers William.