Prince Harry and Mike Tindall are set for a literary showdown, with both releasing books on the same day. The UK will see the paperback launch of Harry’s revealing memoir, ‘Spare,’ while Mike, who is married to Harry’s cousin Zara, will debut his book titled ‘The Good, The Bad & The Rugby – Unleashed.’
Mike, a former England rugby player, wed Zara, Princess Anne’s daughter and King Charles’s niece, in 2011. The couple, parents to three children, are regulars at royal gatherings, including the royal Christmas at Sandringham and last year’s Coronation.
Mike, now retired from rugby, has been on ITV’s ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ and co-hosts ‘The Good, The Bad and The Rugby’ podcast with James Haskell and Alex Payne, which is also releasing its book tomorrow.
Snippets of the book have already been published in The Telegraph – and it seems Mike recalls what it was really like marrying into the Firm, and the experience he has had. He writes: “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. Simple really.”
This narrative starkly contrasts with Meghan Markle’s experience, who has openly discussed the difficulties she faced upon her entry into royalty through her marriage to Harry in 2018. She criticized the royal establishment in the couple’s contentious Netflix documentary, implying a lack of warmth from the Prince and Princess of Wales towards her.
Conversely, Mike is reported to share a close bond with William and Kate, as well as their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
In the meantime, Harry’s book is released nearly two years after its initial publication in January 2023. In this candid memoir, Harry claims that Prince William described his wife Meghan Markle as ‘difficult’, ‘rude’, and ‘abrasive’, and recounts an incident where he was pushed into a dog bowl.
He also suggests that King Charles harbored jealousy towards the Prince and Princess of Wales and that Charles denied Meghan the opportunity to accompany her husband to Scotland during the late Queen’s final days.