Zara Tindall has given a rare interview that appeared to address her reported estrangement from her cousin Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle for the first time.
The only daughter of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, Zara is not technically a working royal like her cousins and works as a pro horse rider, even winning a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics as an equestrian.
On Wednesday, Tindall attended the London Sporting Club lunch and reportedly spoke about her feuding royal relatives.
“It is very hard to see from the outside, but 100 per cent, it is a family that is still going through the same struggles other people do,” the Olympian said, as reported by The Sun newspaper.
“Whether they are relationships, obviously, it is very easy to see every day. We’re still very supportive of each other.”
Tindall, 43, and her husband Mike Tindall, 46, a retired rugby great, are fiercely loyal to the monarchy and have reportedly cut ties with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for betraying Charles.
Elsewhere, Tindall praised her late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II as an “inspiration to all”.
“We had a very incredible person to look up to who is sadly not here anymore,” she said.
“She was amazing and an inspiration to all of us.”
The down to earth Tindalls live on Princess Anne’s Gatcombe Park estate and share daughters Mia Grace and Lena Elizabeth and son Lucas Philip, who are similar in age to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
Tindall serves as godmother to future King George, while her brother Mark Phillips has increasingly become “like a brother” to Prince William after the Sussex feud.
She was also recently spotted attending the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside her other cousins Princess Beatrice and Eugenie, as well her aunt the Duchess of York.
Reflecting on his own transition into royal life, Tindall admitted it was “easier than it could have been”.
“Believe it or not, marrying into the royal family was pretty easy for me,” he wrote in his memoir, The Good, the Bad, and the Rugby: Unleashed, released in October.
In a passage many took to be a cheeky dig at Markle, he wrote: “They were always nice to me, and I was always nice to them. Simple really.”
Follow