Zara Tindall spills Mike marriage secrets and why royal guards stormed in with guns

has opened up about her marriage with former England rugby player , offering rare insight into what their family life is really like behind closed doors. Both Zara and Mike have enjoyed long and successful careers in sport and their down-to-earth approach has made them firm favourites with royal fans.

The niece of has admitted that she wasn't actually super impressed with Mike when they first crossed paths back in 2003, telling The that her first impression of her now-husband was that he was a bit "boring". However, it didn't take long for him to win Zara over, and the couple have been married for over 13 years, and welcomed three children into their family: Mia, 11, Lena, six, and Lucas, four.

Zara, the daughter of , said of their first encounter: "It is a long story. I was out with some mates. We went out to watch the Rugby World Cup. It was when we were young enough to run away from life. I went out for an all day lunch with some girlfriends. We went around the harbour and they were all very drunk and were like ‘England are staying in that hotel’.

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"I walked past the restaurant and I saw Austin Healey. The girls went to Austin and dropped my name and told him where they were going to be. He came out for a drink with us and he brought Mike and Martin Corrigan.

"Mikey, I thought was a bit boring actually. When Austin left and I was told ‘He wants to call you after the final’. I was like ‘that is a bit keen. They have not even got through the semis yet.’"

"Anyway, he messaged me the whole time like ‘Come for a drink, come for a drink’. I was actually hanging out with some of the All Blacks.

"At 8am I walked into this bar and all the England guys were in there and Mike was walking out with this girl and he was like ‘come for a drink’. I was like ‘I have got to go home.’ To this day he said that he only went and raided her fridge!"

Zara, who turns 44 today, also divulged some of the most memorable moments in the couple's long relationship, joking that one of the most "annoying" came when Mike bought a race horse on the spur of the moment, without much of a clue what he was doing. "We went to Cheltenham and it was sales night. Horses were coming in and you bid on them. He had a few beers.

"Most people when they buy a horse check out what it has done. It was the last lot of the night and Mikey put his hand up and that was it. He was left buying this horse. Annoyingly it did not backfire. The horse ended up winning the Welsh Grand National and it was third in the Grand National. It was so annoying."

The silver medal-winning equestrian also admitted that on one occasion, she had to send the police that protect the royals into her mother's apartment in St. James's Palace to wake up her husband - who had overslept after a late night with his rugby crowd.

"He overslept and was staying at St James's Palace. Our PR girl was like ‘where is he?’ I rang the police at St James's and said ‘can you wake Mike up?’ He was in my mum's flat. They let themselves in. He says they came in with guns," Zara revealed.

When it comes to parenting their three youngsters, Zara explained, she and Mike share a desire to instill a strong work ethic in their kids - and that she hopes they take an interest in a sport of some kind, something she believes helps make you a "rounded person".

"Hopefully, you can instil in them (our children) the values that you hold and from both of us what we have learned from our careers and our hard work, dedication, motivations, lessons, and respect," she explained.

"I hope that our children will learn as well. I want to make sure especially how life is now, it is so easy to be distracted from that kind of thing, so we try and work every day to make sure they get the same values that we had.

"I would love them to be involved in sport as it makes you a rounded person. That is what I want for them. I think every child in the whole country should be able to be open and be able to try every sport, at least one time."