Mike Tindall, husband to the former Prince Andrew’s niece, Zara, indirectly addressed the recent royal scandal in a new interview
Samir Hussein/WireImage;Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Mike Tindall; Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor© Samir Hussein/WireImage;Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Mike Tindall, husband of Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara, has officially addressed the Prince Andrew scandal
- During a recent Times interview, Mike’s podcast co-host James Haskell joked that he makes jokes about the disgraced former duke all the time
- Mike responded, ‘I said, no comment!’
At least one royal family member has been officially asked to weigh in on the latest drama.
Mike Tindall, former rugby star and the husband of Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, recently spoke with The Times alongside his podcast co-hosts James Haskell and Alex Payne. The trio hosts the popular show The Good, The Bad & The Rugby — but it was perhaps inevitable that the conversation would drift from sport to royal affairs, specifically Mike’s uncle-in-law, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
On Oct. 30, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles would strip his younger brother of his royal titles, including “prince,” a shocking move stemming from the fallout over Andrew’s ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
During the interview, Haskell noted that he has a habit of teasing Tindall about all things royal, and said that he frequently jokes about Andrew. “It’s never the wrong moment for that,” Haskell quipped during their chat.
Mike, calling in from a family trip, didn’t take the bait. After some indistinct mumbling over the speakerphone, Mike put an end to the matter: “I said, ‘No comment!’”
Dan Charity/WPA Pool/Getty Mike Tindall, Princess Beatrice, and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi at the conoration of King Charles on May 6, 2025
King Charles reached the decision to strip his younger brother of his titles with the support of members of the royal family, including Prince William.
However, as is royal tradition, members of the family have remained tight-lipped about the scandal.
While in Brazil for his Earthshot Prize, Prince William was asked by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about recent “change” in his family. Rather than comment directly, the Prince of Wales pivoted to focus on his environmental initiatives.
“I think the Earthshot Prize is a classic example of change. Rather than talk about it, we’re doing it,” he said. That’s where I want it to be, is that, these people in here are the true, actual heroes of our time. Change will come by backing them, not by what I do.”
“I want to surround myself with people who want to make change and do good in the world,” he added.
Mike met Zara Phillips in 2003 during his World Cup-winning with England’s national rugby team. They married in Scotland in July 2011, just three months after Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot at Westminster Abbey, and share two daughters, Mia, 11, and Lena, 7, and a son, Lucas, 4.
Mike and Zara aren’t working royals. Princess Anne decided upon the birth of her children — Zara, 44, and her older brother, Peter Philips, 47 — that they wouldn’t be given royal titles, explaining later that it was “probably easier for them.”
However, a source speaking to the Times in March 2024 described Zara and Mike as the “glue of their generation of royals, no matter how serious the occasion. They can help take the family’s mind off the gravity of what is going on. While some family members can be very ‘royal,’ Mike is just himself and is relaxed and playful.”
That’s especially evident on his podcast, where he’s even welcomed William, Anne and Kate Middleton for a September 2023 episode, where he shared an anecdote about the Princess of Wales’ competitive beer pong play. Mike later reflected on how he was happy that the episode showed a different side of William and Kate to the world.
“I think the podcast humanized them a little bit, and I kind of wish they’d let us put the uncut version out, because it would have blown the public away,” he wrote in his 2024 book, The Good, the Bad & the Rugby — Unleashed, which he co-authored with Payne and Haskell.
Leave a Reply