Fifteen years later — and mike tindall still looks at zara like she is the only person in the room. Forget the crowns, the carriages and the royal fairytale clichés. Zara and Mike’s love story has lasted because it never needed the palace spotlight to prove anything

Zara Tindall (née Phillips) and her husband Mike Tindall go way back.

The pair met in an Australian pub in November 2003, per Vanity Fair. Princess Anne’s daughter, who is a fan of rugby, had gone Down Under with her brother to watch England play in the World Cup. Mike, a player for English national team, had entered the same pub earlier to take his mind off having been dropped from playing in the semi-final. Their mutual friends introduced them, and the rest was history.

“We became mates, really,” Mike told the Daily Mail. “Eventually it was one of those things where you realize you’re spending all your time with someone, and it went to the next level.”

The pair got engaged in December of 2010 and got married on July 30, 2011 at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh. They have since welcomed three children: Mia Grace born in January 2014, Lena Elizabeth who joined the family in June 2018 and their son Lucas Philip, who came in March 2021.

As the couple marks their 15th wedding anniversary, see photos of their decades-long romance, below.