Mike Tindall has always been a unique member of the royal family. For the most part, he lies low. He plays the part when he's called to, but otherwise he's happy being a regular guy.
Once in a while, however, Mike has some royal tea to spill. It seemed A Question of Sport Live at the London Palladium was one of those occasions, as Mike broached the subject of Prince Harry. Mike was in conversation with his former England teammate Matt Dawson when Matt recalled a time they were out with the Duke of Sussex.
The group was at a bar in Sydney in 2003 celebrating the England Rugby World Cup win. Mike and another player decided to see how many times they could hit Harry before his security detail intervened.
The rugby players quickly found out that royal ties or not, the security detail was trained to stop them after just seconds. Then Mike tied the joke to the present day.
"At Balmoral, the family are now having the same conversation," Mike joked.
"Except the Queen has taken his security away."
Royal fans who have paid attention to Mike believe he may have alluded to this story before, in a podcast appearance last year. During the podcast, hosted by England star James Haskell, Mike mused about how he'd be depicted on Netflix's The Crown.
"That has to be the main incident, if it was there — the full Harry slap," Mike said.
"They don't even know about that. Now you've revealed that," James replied.
It's clear that Mike's joking, but to many it felt like one of those jokes that has a bit of truth to it.
"Mike Tindall's declarations are concerning. So the Queen removed Harry's protection, then organized talks about the best way to harm him?" one Twitter user asked.
Despite the joke, Mike has said that he and Zara have kept in touch with Harry and Meghan since their move to the US. This could just be an extended joke between close family members, but to most it's reading as cringey and a tad truthful.
