Mike Tindall jokes Prince Harry was fun at Hay Literary Festival

Mike Tindall joked at the Hay Literary Festival in Powys, Wales, that he knew prince harry “when he was fun.” The remark came during his appearance on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast with James Haskell and Alex Payne, adding a fresh family-linked comment to the debate around Harry’s place outside day-to-day royal duties.

Tindall said, “A lot of other people managed that way better than you – [like] Harry, when he was fun.” The line landed in a conversation that also touched on Tindall’s 2011 wedding to Zara Tindall, Princess Anne’s daughter and Harry’s cousin, keeping the exchange rooted inside the family circle rather than in formal royal commentary.

Harry’s April 24 Ukraine remarks

Harry had already set the frame for that discussion on April 24, when he told ITV News during a visit to Ukraine, “I will always be part of the royal family.” He added, “I’m here working and doing the very thing that I was born to do, and I enjoy doing it,” and said, “I enjoy being able to do these trips and come and support the people I’ve met before.”

That statement sits alongside Harry’s earlier explanation on The Late Late Show with James Corden, where he said, “It was never walking away,” and described the decision as being about a “really difficult environment.” Harry also said, “We all know what the British press can be like, and it was destroying my mental health.”

Mike Tindall and Zara Tindall

Tindall was speaking as a former England rugby player and as Zara Tindall’s husband. He and his co-hosts also discussed his 2011 wedding to Zara Phillips, and the exchange gave the podcast a more intimate tone than a formal interview would have.

He also used the episode to joke about his broken nose, saying, “Taxpayers’ money fixed it. It’s got the royal warrant if you look inside it.” When Alex Payne joked that Tindall has his own “bedroom at Buckingham Palace,” Tindall replied, “Opposite end to Andrew, though.”

What changes now is not a royal role or a formal policy, but the public language around Harry’s place in the family. A cousin’s spouse has now echoed Harry’s name in a joke that lands differently because Harry himself has recently insisted he still belongs to the royal family while living and working outside the working-royal structure.