Mike Tindall is celebrating wife Zara Tindall‘s birthday on the golf course — but for a good reason!
King Charles‘ niece turned 44 on May 15, and her husband celebrated her with a double set of Instagram posts. Mike, 46, is one of the few members of the British royal family to maintain a public, personal presence on social media, but he rarely uses his presence there to highlight his family life. Instead, the retired professional rugby player keeps his socials focused on his professional endeavors — and lately, his golf game!
Although it was his wife’s big day, he revealed in his social media tributes that he was spending the day doing a charity golf event, joking that his wife “let” him play the sport on her big day.
“It’s a VERY special day… Not only is it the day before the @isps_handa Mike Tindall Celebrity Golf Classic, BUT it’s Zara’s birthday!” Mike wrote on Instagram on May 15.
“🎁 Happy Birthday Z,” he added, sharing a sweet nickname for his wife of 13 years.
He shared the note with a carousel of pictures of Zara, opening with a shot of them together at a golf course and rolling to show her swinging a golf club. Zara and Mike, 46, are among the British royal family’s sportiest couples, as she is a professional equestrian (and former Olympian like her mom, Princess Anne) and her husband is a World Cup-winning retired England rugby player and dedicated amateur golfer.
Mike continued the birthday wishes for his wife in a second Instagram message on her special day, posting an unseen photo of them dressed up and sharing a look of love with champagne glasses in hand.
“🎉Happy Birthday to the better Tindall. She’s even let me play golf on her birthday!” he wrote below the photo.
The couple tied the knot in 2011 (just a few months after Prince William and Kate Middleton) and share three children: Mia, 11, Lena, 6, and Lucas, 4.
Though couples within the British royal family have historically refrained from excessive PDA, Mike and Zara are known to let their love show. In his book The Good, the Bad & the Rugby — Unleashed, published in October, Mike said that marrying into the royal family was “pretty easy” for him because he approached them with kindness.
“Believe it or not, marrying into the royal family was pretty easy for me. They were always nice to me, and I was always nice to them,” Mike said in an excerpt of the text he co-wrote with his The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast co-hosts, according to the Daily Mail. “Simple, really.”
Though he said it was a smooth transition, Zara recently spoke about how the royals face “struggles” like any other family in a surprise comment.
“It is very hard to see from the outside, but 100%, it is a family that is still going through the same struggles other people do,” Zara said about her family dynamic at a London Sporting Club lunch last week, The Sun reported.
“Whether they are relationships, obviously, it is very easy to see every day,” she added. “We’re still very supportive of each other.”
(Left) Zara Tindall waits to compete in the show jumping phase of the Cirencester Park Horse Trials on April 27, 2025; (Right) Princess Anne watches her daughter Zara Tindall compete in the Cirencester Park Horse Trials on April 27, 2025.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty (2)
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Zara recently had a VIP cheerleader supporting her on the sidelines when she competed at the Cirencester Park Horse Trials on April 27 — her mom, the Princess Royal.
Zara referenced the relatable “struggles” her family faces after her cousin Prince Harry gave an explosive interview to the BBC after losing his legal appeal for a restoration of automatic state-funded security in the U.K. on May 2.
In the interview, the Duke of Sussex voiced a wish for “reconciliation” with his family amid a years-long rift that became public when he and Meghan Markle stepped back from their royal roles in the U.K. in 2020.
There, Prince Harry alleged that his father the King “won’t speak to me because of the security stuff” and said he “can’t see a world” where he would bring his wife and their kids, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, back to his home country with out the official police protection he seeks.