‘It wasn’t like Downton Abbey’: Mike Tindall says the late Queen's private life was ‘normal’ as he recalls spending time as a ‘very close family who loved each other’

It’s believed the image to which Mike is referring is a picture he shared on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021. Posting the photograph, which he credited as being taken by the Princess of Wales, he wrote, ‘It’s been a very sad week but it has given us time to reflect on great memories and stories both personal and shared.

‘A devoted family man who we will forever miss but always love.’

When the Queen died in September 2022, he paid a similarly poignant tribute to the monarch, saying: ‘It’s been sad, emotional but happy. In some ways amazing. To see the family come so close together overnight.

‘You never predict it. A 96-year-old lady, you know it’s going to happen but you’re never ready for when it does.

‘Watching what Zara had to go through, obviously she loved the Queen beyond everything else. Their connection with horses, they had a real bond around that.

‘It’s like the world has lost its grandmother in some way.’

Mike said, ‘I also have loads of regrets about not asking her so many more things… Having nervousness when you sit there, get that lucky seat of being sat next to her.