The palace and the press have been trying to make this particular story happen for several years: Prince William doesn’t need Prince Harry because William has Mike Tindall. That’s been a talking point for two solid years, because seemingly everyone in the Windsor clan is still trying to “replace” Harry and Meghan. Mike Tindall has been tasked with being One Pint Willy’s best friend and surrogate brother. Speaking of, the Telegraph has a new piece called “How Mike Tindall became the brother Prince William needs.” From what I know of Mike, he is loutish, violent, boorish, crude and a cheater. I suspect that William and Mike’s relationship is based on “birds of a feather flock together.”

Mike is acting as “uncle” to the Wales kids: The 45-year-old husband of Prince William’s cousin Zara threw an affectionate arm around Prince William’s son George when the Royals greeted well-wishers at Sandringham on Christmas Day. Abandoning formality, Tindall once again resembled the jolly uncle at a family do, who can be relied upon to liven up proceedings. In the absence of Prince William’s actual brother, the California-dwelling Duke of Sussex, the former England rugby star has, to some extent, come to fill the void; to allow the heir to the throne to truly relax and to be someone he can confide in.

William & Mike’s relationship: Royal commentator Dickie Arbiter, a former Palace press secretary, believes the amicable relationship between Prince William and Tindall owes much to their similar personalities. “Mike is a pretty straight guy,” he says. “He’s down to earth, and William is too. Put aside [William’s] role in state occasions, where he has to maintain a certain decorum; the rest of the time, if he goes to a rugby or football match he’s in there cheering with the rest of the fans.” Both Prince William and Tindall are “likeable guys”, and Zara’s longstanding closeness to her cousin has “rubbed off” on her husband, he says. “We’ve seen [this] time and again in William and Mike’s interactions. They are a proper family. They’re not playing at it.” Arbiter says: “They are two peas from the same pod, they’ve just had different upbringings.”

William wishes he could be a lout like Mike: Royal biographer Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine, suggests Tindall’s appeal to Prince William lies in his embodiment of the kind of fun the heir to the throne can no longer indulge in. “Mike Tindall has that kind of sportsman camaraderie that would especially appeal to William, who was once a wild boy himself,” she says. “Mike gets funnier under the influence of alcohol and can be totally outrageous. William cannot do this anymore as he is too aware of his responsibilities. But he can live vicariously through Mike.”

A brotherly bond: Meanwhile, according to Telegraph Royal editor Hannah Furness, the two men do indeed share a “brotherly relationship”. She says: “[Tindall] has somehow managed to find the line between being fairly indiscreet but so charming with it that nobody minds in the slightest. Even his high-risk turns on reality TV have ended up an asset to the royals: if he likes them, the public senses, they must be all right.”

[From The Telegraph]

William and Zara have always been especially close – they’re close in age, they grew up together in a sense, and I’m not surprised that William is close to Zara’s husband in general. But this really smacks of desperation, to make Mike into a surrogate brother, a surrogate Harry. Remember Mike’s comments about Harry in 2021, when he talked about how he violently attacked Harry when Harry was only 18/19? And Mike suggested that the whole family would love to assault Harry and now they can because Harry doesn’t have royal protection. As I said, William and Mike ARE alike. That’s why they get along.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.