Who is Zara Phillips? Meet Mike Tindall’s royal wife and Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter
Royal will appear with her husband on the reunion episode of this year’s ‘I’m A Celebrity’
Mike Tindall will meet again with the cast of 2022’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in a special reunion episode.
During the show, which will airs on Thursday (1 December) on ITV, the former rugby player’s wife, Zara Tindall (née Phillips) will make an appearance.
Zara has been married to Mike Tindall for 11 years. In the reunion episode, she tells campmate Chris Moyles that she missed her husband “too much”, adding: “Let’s never do this again.”
The pair are now embarking on a “whistle-stop Aussie tour”, travelling more than 2,000 km across the country to Adelaide.
But who is Zara Phillips and why is she a royal?
Who is Zara Phillips?
Zara Phillips is the 41-year-old daughter of the Princess Royal and the granddaughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
She was born Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, but changed her name after marrying Mike to Zara Tindall.
Her parents are Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, who was Anne’s first husband. King Charles III, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex are her uncles.
Zara has an elder brother, Peter, and two younger half-sisters, Felicity Wade and Stephanie Pflueger. Felicity is from Mark’s affair with Heather Tonkin, while Stephanie is from his second marriage to Sandy Pflueger.
Is Zara Phillips a working royal?
Zara is a member of the royal family, but she is not a working royal. Working royals, of which there are only nine, support the King in his State and national duties, and also carry out work in areas of public and charitable service.
They also carry out official engagements in the UK and overseas.
Because Zara is 20th in line to the throne, neither she nor Mike are working royals. However, they do attend some royal events such as the Trooping the Colour and Christmas at Sandringham.
What does Zara Phillips do?
Being a non-working royal does not mean not working at all. Zara is an accomplished equestrian, having competed in the Olympics and other sporting events throughout the years.
In the 2012 London Olympic Games, she was announced as a member of the British Equestrian team and won a silver medal in the team event with her horse, High Kingdom. She was presented the medal by Princess Anne.
After changing her name to Zara Tindall, she attempted to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, but was unsuccessful. However, she went on the compete in the Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2017, the Maryland Five Star at Fair Hill in 202, and the Chatsworth Horse Trials in 2022.
She also supports a number of charitable causes related to the equestrian sport and children’s issues. Zara is patron of several charities, including Inspire, a medical research charity in Salisbury that aims to improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries; Lucy Air Ambulance for Children, the UK’s first dedicated air transfer service for critically ill infants and children; Sargent Cancer Care for Children; Cancer Research UK; and the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund.
When did Zara Phillips meet Mike Tindall?
Zara and Mike met in Australia in 2003, when Mike was playing for the England national team during the Rugby World Cup.
They announced their engagement in December 2010 and married the year after on 30 July 2011 at the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh.
They share three children, eight-year-old Mia Grace Tindall, four-year-old Lena Elizabeth Tindall, and one-year-old Lucas Tindall.
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