Prince William has admitted that Mike Tindall apologised to him after revealing the nickname royal family members have for him.
On Thursday 11 January, the Prince of Wales went to Headingley Stadium in Leeds to meet Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield, former rugby players who have raised millions for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) after Burrow was diagnosed with MND in 2019.
Last month, on 20 December, Tindall appeared on Burrow’s podcast titled, Seven: Rob Burrow with his wife, Zara Tindall. Early in the episode, Burrow asked the couple whether they had any nicknames for each other or other members of the royal family.
“The Prince of Wales is known to me as ‘One Pint Willy’ because he’s not the best of drinkers, coming from a sport where it is built on the social aspect and a couple of beers being sunk quite often,” he said. “That is one I will definitely give away for the Prince of Wales. One Pint Willy. It’s out there now, sorry sir.”
Zara chimed in: “You’re in so much trouble! A lot of those nicknames kind of fly around.”
According to the Mirror, William told Burrow on Thursday: “It was you who got the nicknames out of him. He apologised to me about that. When I saw him, I said: ‘Mike, when you’re not going to mention your nicknames doesn’t mean you mention mine, it’s not fair.’ I’m sure it’s quite fun with Mike.”
In addition to joking with Burrow, during his event William awarded CBEs in the New Year’s Honours list for their charity work to both Burrow and Sinfield. Sharing photos from the outing on social media, Prince William’s team wrote: “A pleasure to award Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield with their CBEs at Headingley today. Thank you both for your incredible efforts in raising awareness and funds for Motor Neurone Disease. Both true heroes of the #MND community and the Rugby Football League.”
As for nicknames the royal couple had for other members of the family, Mike said: “We basically call each other ‘munchkins’ a lot, don’t we? Or ‘my love.’” He then joked that it would be up to Zara to reveal what name she’s given him in her list of phone contacts.
The 42-year-old professional equestrian went on to share what she tends to call Mike, including “munchkin”, “Mikey” or “Michael Tindall” when he’s “not listening”.
“He is in my phone as something else, and it ends with ‘kitten,’ ” she told the podcast co-hosts.
“You can fill the first word in,” Mike said in response.
In addition to appearing on the podcast, the father of three also has a podcast of his own, titled The Good, The Bad, And The Rugby alongside James Haskell and Alex Payne. One episode featured William and his wife, Kate Middleton, as well as the Princess Royal, Anne. During the group conversation, Haskell poked fun at the Prince and Princess of Wales’ competitiveness by comparing them to one famous couple on the sitcom Friends.
“Just how competitive are both of you?” he asked the pair. “Because, Mike, I’m not going to lie, but he has made out [that] both of you are super, super competitive, a bit like Monica and Chandler from Friends.”
Kate chimed in with a laugh and gave her candid reaction to the claim, responding: “I’m really not that competitive. I don’t know where this is coming from.” As she made the remark, William proceeded to laugh and poke fun at his wife’s competitive nature by giving her a subtle wink, seemingly in an effort to confirm that she is actually competitive.
