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Phoebe Fuller

I'm a Celebrity's Mike Tindall's real life from growing up in Yorkshire to rugby success and joining the Royal Family

He has been busy in the jungle, keeping us all entertained with his funny anecdotes about Royal life. But Mike Tindall has more to his name than a famous wife and a reality TV appearance.

Though he is one of this series I'm a Celeb contestants, Mike Tindall originally found fame as a Rugby Union player. He played for Bath and Gloucester, along with the England National Team.

The 44-year-old, who is originally from Otley, now lives with his wife, Zara Phillips, and their three children on the Royal Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire. The estate belongs to Anne, Princess Royal - the mother of Mike's wife, Zara.

Read more: I'm a Celeb's Chris Moyles drops BBC Radio 1 exit bombshell to Matt Hancock

Pre-Royal life

Before Mike Tindall joined the Royal Family, he lived and grew up in West Yorkshire. His father, Philip, was a banker and his mother, Linda, a social worker.

Mike was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, now Wakefield Grammar School Foundation. His interest in Rugby was almost predetermined, as his father was the captain of Otley Rugby Union Football Club.

At the age of 18, straight out of school, Mike joined Bath Rugby. He would remain a centre for Bath for eight years, eventually moving on to Gloucester in 2005.

Mike's country-level debut was in 2000, where he played against Ireland at Twickenham. He remained a part of the England team until 2011, and stayed with Gloucester for three more years until he retired in 2014.

Royal life and marriage to Zara Phillips

It was during Mike's career with England that he met Zara Phillips, the daughter of Anne, Princess Royal and granddaughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II. The pair met during the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

The couple courted for a few years until getting engaged in December 2010. As was standard, it was required that The Queen give her consent for the marriage to go ahead, which she did at a meeting of the Privy Council in May 2011.

A little over two months later, Zara and Mike were married at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh. They had 400 friends and family members in attendance; a modest affair by Royal standards, when you consider that William and Kate had 1,900 guests at their wedding.

In fact, Mike and Zara's wedding seemed to set the tone for the Royal life that they would continue to lead. Unlike other members of the Royal Family, the Tindall's tend to keep a low profile - or as low a profile as one can keep when you are a member of the country's most famous family.

Three years after their marriage, Mike and Zara announced the birth of their first child, Mia Grace in 2014. Sadly, Zara suffered two miscarriages after her first birth, before welcoming the couple's second child, Lena Elizabeth, in 2018. Mike and Zara's third child, Lucas Philip, was born in 2021.

These days, Mike is keeping his fellow campmates entertained with funny tales of his life as he participates in the 22nd series of I'm a Celebrity. One of his most recent anecdotes was about a particular dance move that he pulled out in front of his mother-in-law, Princess Anne.

Mike had his campmates roaring with laughter as he admitted to "s**t dropping" in front of Princess Anne, before his trousers ripped - revealing his underpants. Awkward!

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