Dark skies and regular bouts of driving rain were the challenges faced byThe Weeklyfor our exclusive photo shoot with Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall.
Fortunately photographer Michelle Holden, who had flown in from New York for the shoot, was undaunted and the stunning pictures speak for themselves.
We even managed to persuade Zara’s horse High Kingdom — known to Zara and her crew as “Trevor” — to join his regal rider for our pictures.
But for the daughter of Princess Anne, granddaughter to The Queen, this was also just another day outdoors in her stables on the Gatcombe Park Estate in England’s leafy Cotswolds.
Here with her horses and her team Zara seems most at home. In fact she does also live here in the stone cottage behind the stables and it is into this world that she and husband Mike will be introducing their new addition — baby Tindall — in January next year.
While I have met Zara a couple times before — last year, a couple of weeks after her medal-winning performance in the Olympic Games — and then here in Australia earlier this year at The Magic Millions on the Gold Coast, this is the first time I’ve met her husband rugby player Mike Tindall and it’s interesting to see what a strong, together and … well, unaffectedly happy couple they are.
Mike is a warm, friendly Yorkshireman, full of stories and really excited about becoming a dad. Zara is a little more guarded about her feelings but softens when her husband is around.
When we sit down to talk Zara seems much more at ease when Mike is by her side and he in turn is proud, loving and protective towards her.
Most of all Zara is desperate to get Mike to Australia on one of her upcoming visits and hopes that when she next comes in 2015 as part of her new five-year tenure as patron for The Magic Millions, she will be coming with Mike — and maybe even baby Tindall — in tow.
Read more of this story in the November issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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