Mike Tindall reveals ‘boozy’ first date with Zara: ‘It was a good start’

Mike Tindall and Princess Anne's daughter Zara met in Australia in 2003. Photo / Getty Images

Mike Tindall says he and his now wife Zara, Princess Anne’s daughter, first bonded over “getting smashed” in a pub.

Tindall, 43, shared the story of his first date with the Queen’s granddaughter, 41, on the latest episode of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

He recalled the couple met during the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2003 at the Manly Wharf Bar in Sydney.

“I was at the World Cup, she was out watching,” he revealed on the survival reality show.

“I got dropped from the semi-final. I was pissed off and so I went for a beer with another guy who got dropped and a guy who was over [in Sydney]. They’d met her before and they introduced us and then got chatting.”

The pair quickly established they had chemistry.

“First actual date, just went out for lunch locally. And ended up being quite a boozy one,” the former England rugby player recalled. “Then we figured out that we both quite like getting smashed. It was a good start.”

In response to fellow contestant Owen Warner asking, “So if you never got dropped you never would have met her?” Tindall responded, “Best decision of Clive Woodward’s life.”

Woodward was the Team England rugby coach at the time.

The couple got engaged in 2010 and married the summer after, going on to have three children together: daughters Mia, 8, and Lena, 4, and son Lucas, 1.

Zara and Mike Tindall attend the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. (Photo / Karwai Tang/WireImage

During an interview with 60 Minutes Australia in 2012, Zara confirmed she met her now-husband at the beach bar and agreed it was often “inevitable” that athletes gravitate towards each other.

“It’s probably easy, you know, wanting to be the best. It goes together well,” Zara, a professional equestrian, said.

Tindall is in Australia competing on the extreme reality show. The UK’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! has been hugely popular since its debut in 2002 as it takes contestants out of their daily lives and puts them into campsites to battle the elements and the dangers of nature.

Contestants battle hunger, camp life and challenges as they are slowly eliminated by the public vote. When just three contestants remain they are given the option of their dream restaurant meal to eat in the jungle.

At the end of the competition, the Queen or King of the Jungle will be announced and crowned on live TV.