Mike Tindall, 43, opened up about his first time meeting his uncle-in-law, King Charles III, after he became monarch. Unfortunately for Mike, he suffered a slightly awkward break in protocol.
It will take some time for royal fans to get used to having a new monarch in Buckingham Palace following the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth III, and this is just as true for members of the Royal Family.
Mike Tindall, the husband of the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall, has spoken out about experiencing a bit of an awkward blunder during his first meeting with King Charles III after he became sovereign.
During a recent episode of his sports podcast, ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Rugby’, the former rugby union player admitted he almost curtseyed to the King.
According to the Royal Family website, protocol dictates that, when meeting the King, men should give a neck bow, without bending their waist, while women should carry out a “small curtsy”.
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Leaving his fellow hosts, James Haskell and Alex Payne, speechless, Mike revealed: “You know when you’re following a routine? I almost curtseyed to the King the other day.
“Without thinking about it. I was just following my wife, saw her curtsey, and I, fortunately, didn’t.”
Mike, who ended up turning the curtsey into a “lower bow”, went on to clarify that he thinks he “styled it out alright”, although he admits he may have looked as though he’d “stubbed my toe or something on the floor”.
Fortunately, Mike’s gaffe happened during a private moment behind the scenes, and not in front of any TV cameras.
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During the chat, which comes ahead of the new series of the podcast which drops tomorrow, he recalled meeting the Queen in 1992 when he was at school, with no knowledge that he would one day marry into her family.
In the days after his wife’s grandmother’s death, Mike took to Instagram to share two moving tributes to the Queen.
The first showed the Sydney Opera House with a photo of the late Queen projected on the side and the second a sketch of a tearful corgi.
The Queen died in Balmoral on September 8 at the age of 96. In the days that followed, members of the Royal Family took place in a number of engagements and met well-wishers.
