There are royal weddings that receive full ceremonial coverage and there is the wedding of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh on July 30, 2011, which had no carriage procession, no Buckingham Palace balcony appearance, and no global television audience of two billion people, because Zara is the daughter of Princess Anne and granddaughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II and therefore royal, but is not in the line of succession and therefore not required to produce a spectacle, and the marriage has lasted 15 years today on that exact basis.
Mike Tindall, 47, is a former England rugby union international who captained the team, won the World Cup in 2003, and has spent the decade since his retirement becoming the most consistently entertaining member of the extended Royal Family on television, via his popular podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby, and his participation in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2022, which produced footage of him performing a task in a jungle and which the Royal Family observed without official comment. He married Zara, also 47 as of May, at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, and they have three children: Mia, 12, Lena, 7, and Lucas, 5.
“I can’t believe she’s letting me play golf on her birthday — what a legend,” Tindall told Hello magazine at his charity golf event in Sutton Coldfield in May, which fell on Zara’s 45th birthday, which means Zara turned 45 while Mike was at a charity golf event and she was at home with their three children, and Mike described this as legendary, and it was published, and Zara has apparently not objected to the characterization.
The marriage, per GB News’s confirmed reporting published three hours ago, is described as anchored by friendship that preceded romance, a shared sense of humor, and common interests, which is the description of a successful marriage that the Royal Family’s communications team would produce and which Tindall’s golf birthday comment confirms is accurate. They first met in Sydney during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, when Mike was on tour with England and Zara was on a gap year.
They have been married 15 years today. He played golf on her birthday in May. She called it legendary. Or he called her legendary. The distinction matters less than the golf.
When the rugby World Cup winner celebrates 15 years of marriage to the Queen’s granddaughter by telling a magazine she let him play golf on her birthday, what exactly is the royal protocol for?
Sources
GB News: Zara Tindall and Mike Tindall celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary
