Former English Rugby star Mike Tindall is a supportive husband and doting father. As his wife (and Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter) Zara Tindall prepares for 2016's Rio Olympics, the 36-year-old told the U.K. Times that he is a "hands on dad" when it comes to 20-month-old daughter Mia.
"You got to be a hands on dad nowadays," he told the paper. "Plus Zara spends a lot of time with the horses, so I don't have much choice in that sense."
Zara, 34, took home the silver medal as a member of Great Britain's Eventing team in 2012 with her horse High Kingdom, and Mike says his wife plans on taking another title during next year's Olympics. He also joked that if she and the steed qualify, he will "wrap them both up in cotton wool to avoid injuries."
Mike admitted that the couple's daughter Mia is taking after her mother when it comes to liking horses. In their spare time he might "take her out on a pony ride, on a little Shetland."
Ponies aside, Mike and Zara's little girl has a lot of playmates. In addition to her first cousins and then Prince William and Kate Middleton's children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, some of Mike's former teammates have children her age as well. "Around the time we had her, we had seven guys at Gloucester have kids within three months of each other," he explained. "Perhaps it was a very boring off-season."
When Mike is not tending to his daughter and home life, the former sportsman has become a reality TV superstar, competing on The Jump: On The Piste and Bear Grylls: Mission Survival, a hobby he has taken up since he announced the end of his 18-year rugby career.
The family resides at the Gatcombe Park estate of Zara's mother Princess Anne in Gloucestershire, England. While Mia will know her mother is an avid horse rider, Mike mentioned that his daughter will have no idea what he did for a living, sharing that he would have to "wheel out old videos" of his rugby highlights to show her his accomplishments in the future.