Zara Anne Elizabeth Tindall MBE OLY is a British equestrian, an Olympian, and the daughter of Anne, Princess Royal, and Captain Mark Phillips. She is the niece of King Charles III and is 20th in the line of succession to the British throne.
Tindall won the Eventing World Championship in Aachen in 2006. That same year, she was voted 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year by the public. In 2012, she carried an Olympic flame at Cheltenham Racecourse on her horse Toytown.
Tindall frequently supports and attends events for various charitable causes, mainly revolving around spinal injuries, equestrianism, and children’s causes.
In June 2015, Tindall launched a line of jewellery collection, named “Zara Phillips Collection”, in collaboration with Australian designer John Calleija.
In October 2021, Tindall competed in Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill and finished in 11th place with a score of 30.4, riding Gleadhill House Stud Ltd’s 12-year-old horse named Class Affair. In May 2022, Tindall won the advanced class at the Chatsworth Horse Trials, riding Class Affair.
Why is Zara Tindall not HRH?
Zara Tindall does not have a princess or HRH title both because of a long-standing royal tradition and because of Princess Anne.
In the British Royal Family, a 14th-century rule dictates that only men are allowed to pass on their titles to their children – and these offspring must have fathers in the direct line of succession.
This is why the Queen’s two older sons, King Charles III and Prince Andrew, have been able to grant their children the titles of prince and princesses, while Princess Anne’s children – despite being in line to the throne – initially missed out on automatically inheriting the noble rankings.
However, Princess Anne’s children could have had HRH titles as the Queen did offer her only daughter the choice to give Zara and Peter titles when they were born. But Princess Anne broke with royal tradition and she refused, for similar reasons as to why Lady Louise is not a princess. Princess Anne thought life would be “easier” for her children if they did not have HRH titles.
“I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” Princess Anne told Vanity Fair in April 2020(opens in new tab). “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
The Princess Royal’s decision has since been praised by royal insiders as advantageous to her two children, who have both established their own careers outside of the Royal Family’s bubble.