This week marks five years since Megxit, the infamous moment when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were leaving the Royal Family for a life of freedom.
They planned to pursue new and exciting job opportunities, find fans further afield, and enjoy a happiness that had eluded them as senior members of The Firm.
So it must be somewhat galling for Harry and Meghan, as they continue to struggle to make their mark in America, to see another royal couple living the life that still eludes them.
Mike and Zara Tindall, daughter of Princess Anne and granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, are a model of what the couple could have been: fun-loving, easy-going and immensely popular.
And as they launch into their annual summer season in Australia, the Tindalls make combining determined efforts with a good time look easy.
Adored in both hemispheres for their warmth and down-to-earth attitude, they are not exactly what we expect from royalty, but exactly what the institution needs.
In Australia for the annual equestrian event, the Magic Millions Carnival, where they are both ambassadors (Zara competes and Mike helps judge the karaoke and compete), they are a couple who have cleverly designed a life that encompasses palaces and beaches, monarchy and couples. .
The Tindalls are proof that you can be both real and “normal.” Taking carefree selfies with admirers at the Pacific Fair Magic Millions Polo event, Zara, 43, and her husband, 46, are a cheerful antidote to the Sussexes.
Zara Tindall and her husband Mike at a Magic Millions event in Surfers Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast on January 7 this year.
Zara was spotted today doing some shopping at Budds Beach in the heart of Surfer’s Paradise.
It’s worth noting that Zara has also become something of a fashion icon on this trip, combining style with a chic royal nod to its hosts by stepping out on Sunday in a summer midi dress by Australian designer Leo Lin and a design black lace floral. also from the Sydney-based label, at the Racing Women Awards night on Friday.
As Meghan, 43, returns to her role as lifestyle influencer with carefully curated Instagram posts promoting With Love, Meghan (her new Netflix show that comes straight from the traditional wife’s playbook), Harry, 40 years old, he seems to fill his days with court cases and surfing.
How much easier their life would have been if they had opted for a discreet life but close to royalty like that of the Tindalls.
Before their trip to Oz, the Tindalls spent Christmas Day at Sandringham Church with the King, Queen, William and Kate. This week they will be on the Gold Coast with the likes of Thor actor Chris Hemsworth and his wife, Spanish model and actress Elsa Pataky, who are also Magic Millions ambassadors, as well as rugby league legend Billy Slater and his wife Nicola .
The friendships are genuine, and Pataky recently told me that they had enjoyed family meals together at the Hemsworth home in Byron Bay, as well as trips to Sea World and Wet’n’Wild, a water theme park where other visitors no doubt They were I am amused to see a Hollywood actor and King Charles’s eldest niece, who is 21st in line to the throne, together on the slides.
It certainly helps cement friendships that the couple’s children are similar ages: Hemsworth and Pataky have ten-year-old twins and a 12-year-old daughter.
Pataky, who visited the Tindalls at their home in the Cotswolds, revealed that the friends’ WhatsApp group regularly pings long after their commitments as Magic Millions ambassadors are completed.
The Tindalls enjoy arguably the best life of any member of the Royal Family and it is precisely the model that Harry and Meghan could have created if they had negotiated Megxit with greater care and diplomacy.
How much easier life would be for Meghan and Harry if they had opted for a low-key but royal-adjacent life like the Tindalls. In photo, the couple from With Love, Meghan on Netflix
Unlike the Tindalls, who enjoy a joyful relationship with Princess Anne, Harry and Meghan have little to no relationship with their respective parents. His children are denied the company of some of their cousins, they are unable to support several members of staff for long, and the new year begins with yet another court battle for the duke.
Even Meghan’s new Netflix series, premiering on January 15, seems, in the opinion of many, a very contrived facsimile of the ground already covered by Gwyneth Paltrow and Martha Stewart.
If the goal isn’t perfection, as Meghan’s voiceover proclaims in the Love, Meghan trailer, then why did she need to do a second take of her first Instagram post, whimsically showing off her ‘2025’ writing in the sand? ?
By contrast, the quiet Tindalls could well become the Commonwealth’s ideal ambassadors for a future King William. Ironically, the Sussexes were offered the roles of chair and vice-chair of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust before they stepped down from their roles as working members of the Royal Family.
However, if they had approached his obvious unhappiness with a more considered and collegial approach, there is every chance that the wise late monarch would have found a way to enjoy a life like the Tindalls’, something that approximated the role of half-inside , half out. initially proposed.
However, her sensitivity and urgency left no room or time to accommodate a new arrangement that could have combined her desire for privacy and independent work with a warm relationship with the Royal Family.
Of course, the Tindalls have no official royal titles nor do they officially represent Britain in Australia. However, they have created a role for themselves that makes good use of their public popularity on behalf of the monarchy, while maintaining their status as a private family.
Last year they came to support Prince William at a garden party at Buckingham Palace when the Princess of Wales was unable to attend due to cancer treatment.
Zara plays polo as part of Magic Millions event on Sunday
Meanwhile, their children, Mia, ten, Lena, six, and Lucas, three, clearly have a close and easy relationship with their cousins George, 11, Charlotte, nine, and Louis, six.
Otherwise, the Tindalls enjoy a cozy family life, great friends, and a career portfolio that allows them to work on everything from podcasts to overseas engagements.
In fact, as Zara told the Australian Financial Review last month, they love their annual visits to Australia and the country is particularly significant to the couple as it is where they met in 2003 after rugby star Mike in the World Cup.
Revealing that the couple have a photograph of the Manly Wharf Bar where they met on the wall of their home in Gloucestershire, he said: “Australia is a very special place for us.” We love the lifestyle and the weather is obviously amazing. It’s very relaxed. We have a lot of friends out there.’
Pataky confirms that the Magic Millions ambassadors are like a “big family.”
As she told me: ‘We had dinner and had a great time. Zara and Mike have brought their children to our house. We have so many pets and daughter Lena fell in love with our bearded dragon lizard. They had to buy him one when they returned to England.
With his keen interest in polo, Prince Harry has most likely been a candidate for his own Magic Millions embassy. Instead, perhaps she watches with envy as her cousin and her husband enjoy fun times with their old friend, Argentine model and polo player Nacho Figueras, who was also on the Gold Coast this weekend.
The fact is that Harry, a rugby enthusiast with a keen sense of humour, always shared a natural camaraderie with Mike Tindall, who won over the nation when he appeared on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here in his budgie smugglers. in 2022. Tindall later launched her own line of celebrity swimsuits and donated the proceeds to Cure Parkinson’s (her father, Philip, was diagnosed with the disease in 2003).
Meanwhile, Zara is juggling her equestrian ambitions (she’s not ruling out competing at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032) with motherhood and causes close to her heart, including Racehorse Retraining and the Magic Millions Racing Women Initiative designed to attract more women in the industry. .
Katie Page, who owns the equestrian carnival with her husband, retailer Gerry Harvey, is a big fan of the King’s niece and hired her as an ambassador in 2012. Mike joined as an ambassador in 2016. As Page says, Zara is a dream for work with.
“I’ve watched her with people and nothing is too much trouble,” he says. “She’s very generous with her time and when she’s there everyone wants to say hi.”
In fact, it’s just the kind of quiet popularity that Harry and Meghan seem to crave.