Mike Tindall reveals three children with Zara have inherited sports champion parents' competitive streak - and even bedtime's a race
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With a Rugby World Cup winner for a father and an Olympic medal-winning equestrian for a mother, the Tindall children were always going to have a steely streak of competitiveness.
And it seems that Mike and Zara Tindall are determined to put their youngsters – Mia, 12, Lena, eight, and five-year-old Lucas – through their paces, even when it comes to bedtime.
Mr Tindall, 47, told the Henley Literature Festival: 'Even if it's just a race upstairs to bed, there will be ankle taps.
'It might lead to a broken leg one day, but they will learn. Hopefully the children will turn out like us.
'And if they are as competitive as their mother, then we are all f****d!'
Ankle taps are an innocuous-sounding but formidable defensive tackling technique that Mr Tindall would frequently use on the rugby field.
This fighting spirit is something the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! star says that he inherited from his father, Philip, who passed away two weeks ago after a 25-year battle with Parkinson's disease.
Mr Tindall grew up in a middle-class family in Yorkshire – his father was a Barclays bank manager – before going on to win 75 caps for England as a rugby union player.
Mike Tindall said his children have taken to ankle taps in the race upstairs at bedtime
Appearing alongside James Haskell and Alex Payne, his co-presenters on the podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby, Mr Tindall also addressed his journey from Wakefield to Windsor Castle.
He married Zara Phillips, Princess Anne's daughter, in 2011 in Edinburgh – and joked that his story could be made into a television series.
When asked about it on the podcast by Mr Haskell, he replied: 'It's the making of a great story isn't it?
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