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.
This, I think, is the point. Milktoast mike still drinks like he’s 21 and Harry, apart from leaving the UK, has created an amazing career in multiple sectors, including finance, investment, mental health, philanthropy and he’s a grown up. Mike is still the hard drinking, partying philanderer and I guess his friends are too. They never grew up. Plus he gets clicks for mentioning Harry, like right here. It works.
What he meant to say was “Harry grew up.”
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.
I don’t think the dwarf throwing was alleged. It was a thing. Plus he’s always screwed around, only caught a few times. The most famous BEFORE the wedding. Lol i have zero fuks to give about her so laugh I will.
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.
Since Harriet is white and blonde, I’m guessing the answer to your question is no, I doubt Bill had any objections.
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.
He’s still cultivating the absolute lout look, I see.
I co-sign this, C-shell.
Boy, are we on the same page about that, you guys. Take a number and get in line.
I have always assumed that for Tindall the misogyny is the point. Thus when Harry stopped being misogynistic he stopped being fun.
It sure sounds like they hate you if you grew beyond the frat party stage of life, and believe me there is nothing fun about living with a man in their 40’s acting like a frat boy, no woman wants to live with that mental mess.
He’s a mean-spirited frat boy who never grew up and on top of that he looks like Shrek. What a prize Zara has there.
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.
And funny (not) how Tindall can get away with slagging off Royal family members, when Kate & Meghan could never.
He is such a rent-a-gob.
@DWI: Zara will never tell him to stop because this is how she feels about Harry too and Mike Tindall mentioning him keeps their names in the press. This is the same woman who perpetuates the lie that Anne chose not to give her and her brother titles.
@dwi Hang on, Zara is as wildly uncouth as the brute she married. She has no manners, she’s quite stupid, they are literally birds of a feather. She’s equally brutish. She mocks people all the time (mostly poc). Don’t give Zara a pass, she’s him in a dress. Plus the only reason for this post on this story, as I said above, is he mentions harry. Would we read it here otherwise?
Zara married him knowing full well who he is.
@Tarte Au Citron: white male privilege extends even to slobs.
MT is the kind of man that makes you want to take a shower after meeting them, smarmy is what my grandmother called men like him, it fits.
It’s not a lie that Anne chose not to give them titles. They would never have been HRHs but they could’ve been Lord/Lady. But Anne and mark declined an earldom for him. It had been expected that Anne go the Margaret route but she declined. That’s what she means by “turning down a title”.
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.
He’s very stupid. At best he’d have a commentating gig, but there are loads of very smart rugby players, better at that than him. Rugby was always the sport of professionals – the posh boys from expensive schools. It was their game. I think he’d have gone the way of the dinosaurs. People only know him now because of the royals.
He has also been one of the main ones to marry into that family to use his royal connection to profit the most. He lives in a royal residence and throws around Royal members names to make money on reality shows, sponsor deals and now a podcast. He’s a frat boy who refuses to grow up and his wife, unfortunately, seems to match perfectly with him.
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.
Yep! “When Harry was fun” — sounds like that toxic ‘friend’ who enables addiction and isn’t there to support health and healing.
Yes, this is another hate campaign against Harry. This is not tindall first time to suggest Harry was fun in another life. This recycled story like many about the Sussexes lacks originality. We truly don’t know who is invited to the wedding and who will show up beside the immediate family of the groom and bride.
The gags about Andrew demonstrate that the Royal Family never took those allegations seriously and still don’t. Anyway, where is the press outrage about Mike Tindall continuously his royal connections for fame and fortune?
I agree, Amy Bee.
Secretly, the left-behinds are all sitting around wondering what the big deal is with Andy’s connections to Epstein. They’re all deplorables. Tindall fits right in.
Prince Harry matured, the other left behinds remain the same obnoxious folks. Harry married a woman who will not tolerate the sort of behavior those folks engage in and he values his wife and children far too much to engage in this nonsense. He is living with purpose
Thugs have to thug. Tindall is a thug forever.
You can dress Tindall up but he’s still a Neanderthal.
Can’t stand the creep. Got his ugly teeth redone, too. His high profile marriage has been his ticket….otherwise no-one would even know who he is.
Is this the same Mike Tindall who groped the breasts of a female contestant on the Australian reality show he was in (and all in front of the cameras)? And the one who cheats on his wife and looks and acts like a Neanderthal? Thought so.
So Mike has a freebie apartment at buck house?
This gross dude is the guy at your reunions who’s away from the wife for a night, getting sloppy drunk, living in the past and pretending he’s successful in his current life. Meanwhile everyone who grew up is trying to avoid him as he gropes and slobbers over any woman who crosses his path. I’m sure it keeps Harry up at night that this loser doesn’t think Harry’s fun anymore.
who listens to this if he isn’t taking jabs at Harry? The whole country is so obsessed with classism, how close can you get to the royal family? I mean, it’s a race to the bottom, isn’t it?
Kim, don’t forget to add Mike’s cheating on his wife. That’s a tasty morsel of “fun” right there. But un-fun Harry has always been faithful to his wife. And that’s a good thing, you moron, Mike.
Tindall is so gross! Deeply unattractive. And his extramarital activities are well documented. Can’t imagine what Zara sees in that homely cheater.