I knew Prince Harry when he was fun, jokes Mike Tindall as royal friendship cools after Duke of Sussex moved to Montecito

Mike Tindall has joked that he remembers Prince Harry ‘when he was fun’ around 15 years ago.

The ex-England rugby star, 47, who is married to the Duke of Sussex‘s cousin Zara Phillips, cracked the joke at Harry’s expense at the Hay Festival.

Although he did not go into details, Mr Tindall hinted that Harry may have made a spectacle of himself when Mike married Zara in 2011 – five years before he met and fell in love with Meghan Markle. 

During a lively appearance at the book and arts festival in Powys, Mike also cracked a joke about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his bedroom at Buckingham Palace.

First he poked fun at Prince Harry as he discussed marrying Zara, hinting at hijinks at the evening celebration held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Speaking with James Haskell and Alex Payne, his co-hosts on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, he admitted he was shocked that fellow England rugby player Haskell had not disgraced himself during the wedding breakfast and reception.

‘A lot of other people managed that way better than you – [like] Harry, when he was fun’, Tindall joked. 

Mike Tindall has joked that he remembers Prince Harry ‘when he was fun’ around 15 years ago when he married Zara Phillips

Moving on to the former Duke of York, having apparently told Haskell and Payne backstage that he would avoid the subject, Mike made a gag about Andrew.

Just hours before it was revealed that police widened their probe into the disgraced royal to include potential sexual offences, Payne joked that his friend has ‘got his own bedroom at Buckingham Palace’.

Tindall replied to hoots of laughter: ‘Opposite end to Andrew, though’.

He then joked of his repeatedly-broken nose from rugby: ‘Taxpayers’ money fixed it. It’s got the royal warrant if you look inside it.’

Mike, Zara and Harry were once so close to Prince Harry that he was asked to be godfather to their second daughter, Lena.

However, their relationship has cooled since Megxit.

In 2022 when the nation celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, he was overheard referring to Harry with a one-word expletive.

Mike had allegedly called him a ‘b***end’ to a fellow guest at a Buckingham Palace party, and was reportedly critical of the way Harry had spoken to a member of staff.

24 hours earlier, Zara had acted as a ‘buffer’ between Prince Harry and Mike Tindall at an ‘awkward’ Thanksgiving service for the Queen.

Mike appeared to give the Sussexes the cold shoulder on the steps of the church, where Meghan and Harry were also booed by some in the crowd.

Tindall looked stone-faced and away from the royal couple as they exited St Paul’s Cathedral.

He didn’t join them in their conversation with his wife, Zara, before they left.

Peter Phillips also looked awkward as he stood watching. 

Zara Tindall acted as a ‘buffer’ between her husband, Mike Tindall, and Prince Harry at the Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral. Meghan smiled and Peter Phillips looked awkward outside St Paul’s in 2022

Mike later made pointed remarks about an ‘outstanding’ secret lunch during the celebrations, which Harry and Meghan didn’t attend, claiming it was the best moment of the week.

Mr Tindall said at the time: ‘It was outstanding, to be fair. It was just great to be a part of’, adding: ‘We had a good cousins’ lunch on the Thursday. That was a highlight’. 

Speaking at Hay, Mike revealed he and his podcast mates are looking to make a documentary of their running of Richmond Rugby Club.

It would be in the style Ryan Reynolds’s series about Wrexham or Clarkson’s Farm. 

Payne said: ‘We’ve got some amazing ideas – Amazon Prime are interested – if we can get it going.

‘The Rolling Stones used to practise when they were 16 years old in the Richmond clubhouse, and one of my ambitions is to get Mick Jagger back, because he lives in Richmond, to do a big gig at Richmond Athletic Ground, raise money and get the club back on the map.

‘Tin[dall]’s obviously got good connections. We could have Catherine meeting the team, the Princess of Wales. These are all massive pipe dreams.’