MIKE Tindall has revealed he fears he will infuriate the I’m A Celebrity campmates with his noisy eating habits – a trait his wife Zara despises.
The ex-England rugby captain said the Royal had warned him to watch his unrefined manners while in camp.
Mike, 44, said: “Zara’s biggest worry is how loud I am when I eat.
“She will be very happy if someone comments about how loud I breathe when I eat because it’s always a point that she brings up.
“But when your nose has been mangled as much as mine has – it is just a byproduct.
“Zara told me to go and be myself, which is all you can be.
“She said to go enjoy yourself and be yourself.”
The 2003 Rugby World Cup winner suffered his first nasal injury at the age of five before breaking it at least eight more times throughout his sporting career.
Mike will join politician Matt Hancock, Love Island’s Olivia Attwood and radio legend Chris Moyles in the jungle this tomorrow.
But he already feels at home.
Mike met Zara for the first time in Sydney, Australia during the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Lovingly referring to his wife as ‘Z’, he said: “Obviously, it’s difficult, but the saving grace is going to a country that we know very well, and Zara understands and gets it and that makes it a lot easier.”
Zara, 41, and their children Mia, eight, Lena, four, and one-year-old Lucas will remain at home on Princess Anne’s estate, Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire but may fly out if Mike makes the final.
He said: “We’re not entirely sure yet, we haven’t fully made that decision and it’s probably how deep into the show we go.
“We have some work out here so if it got to the end then hopefully she’d be able to come out. We will have to wait and see really.”
It will be 19 years to the month that a then 25-year-old Mike met the eldest granddaughter of the late Queen Elizabeth while sulking over a beer in a pub in Sydney after he was dropped from the England rugby team ahead of the World Cup.
He was later handed her number by his fellow teammate Austin Healey and the pair started messaging before going on their first date in April 2004.
But Mike, who won 75 caps for England between 2000 and 2011 and Zara, who scooped silver at the London Olympics in 2012, know all too well that long distance can come with pursuing personal goals.
He went on: “Zara gets it and supports it – with both our careers, she goes away competing for weeks at a time and I always went on tours for three to four weeks in the summer so our relationship has always been built to deal with that and we’re good at compartmentalising and finding ways to deal with it.
“It’s one of those things with the kids, I’ve had a couple of phone calls with them while I’ve been here.
“They say they’re going to miss you when you leave but when you ring them, they’re like: ‘Hi dad! Bye!’ Then they are off doing whatever. I expected there to be more tears than there actually are.
“They’d be in bed before the show goes out on a normal evening so it’ll be down to Z to get them the highlights – only the good stuff probably.”
- I’m A Celebrity will launch on Sunday at 9pm on ITV.
