Mike Tindall has issued a defiant message to critics who say he ‘demeans’ the Royal Family with his media career and TV appearances.

The former England rugby player married into the Firm 13 years ago when he tied the knot with Princess Anne’s daughter Zara, who is also a granddaughter of the late Queen. Both Zara and Mike are non-working members of the Royal Family, meaning they don’t carry out official duties on behalf of King Charles. Instead, they are free to earn money however they wish, with Mike co-hosting a successful rugby podcast, being an ambassador for several brands and even appearing on hit ITV show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, where he talked about his royal relatives.

Mike says he did the show after they made him an offer ‘he simply couldn’t refuse’ ( 
Image:
James Gourley/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)When it was announced he was to appear on the show, some criticised him for cashing in on his connections. However, in his brand new book The Good, The Bad & The Rugby – Unleashed, which he’s written with his podcast co-hosts Alex Payne and James Haskell, he addresses the critics.

He says: “There are people who think that some of the things I do demean the royal family, such as when I appeared on I’m a Celebrity in 2022. But I didn’t take that decision lightly; they’d been asking me for years. And I eventually cracked because they made me an offer I simply couldn’t refuse.

“The money I got from I’m a Celebrity helped fill the gap left by Covid, among other things. I wasn’t interested in the ‘challenge’ of being in the jungle, or increasing my fame, it was purely a financial consideration.”

Elsewhere in the book, Mike candidly addresses money, dismissing claims he’s worth £25million and praising his royal relatives such as the King, the Prince and Princess of Wales and his mother-in-law Princess Anne for their hard work.

Mike and Zara sit behind King Charles and Queen Camilla ( 
Image:
Getty Images)He explains: “People think that working members of the royal family get up every day, shake a few hands, cut the odd ribbon, and not much more than that. But now I’ve seen behind the curtain, I know there’s a lot more to it than that. Being a working member of the royal family is all-consuming, you don’t have your own time or your own space. With us sitting outside the working royals it allows us to do things our way, which works better for us.

“It can be frustrating when you know the truth and other people simply aren’t interested in it, but you just have to live with it. In fact, that’s one of the royal family’s mottos: ‘Never explain, never complain.’ I try not to think about it, although it took me a long time to get to that point.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the book, Mike opens up about what the late Queen was really like and addressed the ‘drama’ surrounding the Royal Family. In the new book, there is a whole chapter dedicated to royalty – and in it Mike attempts to set the record straight about what life being part of the Firm is like – and what he experienced spending time with the late Queen.

He writes: “I’m sometimes asked if the Queen did informality like ‘normal’ people, and the answer to that is yes. Her life wasn’t like an episode of Downton Abbey, with meals on long tables and everyone dressed in their finery every night, and Zara and I would often watch the racing with her on TV, as I’m sure lots of people reading this have done with their gran. Lunches were also relaxed, especially up in Scotland, where lunch would often be heading out into the open space of the Scottish Highlands for a picnic

“There’s a great picture of my daughter Mia sitting with the Duke of Edinburgh that captures exactly what those afternoons were like: members of a very close family who loved each other dearly spending precious time together. Yes, there’s a lot of drama surrounding the royal family, but they aren’t much different to anyone else underneath it all.”