Zara Tindall Opens Up About the Parenting Habit She Inherited and Is Trying to Break
Zara Tindall opens up about her father’s tough-love approach and how it shaped her career and parenting style.
Coming from a royal family, Zara Tindall had a comfortable upbringing at Gatcombe Park with her parents, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, and her brother, Peter Phillips. But while she was growing up, Zara was also training to become one of Britain’s most successful equestrians. Despite both her parents being accomplished athletes in the sport, neither mollycoddled her or gave her an easy route into the riding world, as she revealed.
Tindall has recalled that her parents made it clear she would have to earn her place if she wanted to pursue eventing professionally. Her father, an Olympic champion, was particularly tough to impress, something Zara has carried with her as she raises her own children. She has admitted that she tries “not to be quite that bad” when it comes to putting pressure on them.
Speaking on the Talk Horse podcast, Zara recalled how her parents made it clear that pursuing eventing professionally would not come with any special treatment. “I think my dad and my mum were like, ‘But you have to do it properly. And this is how it's going to work. And you're not getting any help, and you need to produce results,” she said. Zara went on to build a hugely successful career in the sport, becoming World Champion and winning a silver medal at the London Olympics.
Although Anne and Phillips divorced in 1992, her father continued to play a major role in her equestrian training. Tindall said the two had very different approaches to the sport and her mother took a much more relaxed attitude.
Meanwhile, Phillips was much harder to impress. She said, “My father was quite critical... Very rarely you would get a, “Yeah, that was good”, out of him. So it was always striving to try and get that comment. He was a tough coach.”
Unlike the strict approach she experienced growing up, Tindall is trying to be a little more relaxed with her own children. Her daughters, Mia and Lena, whom she shares with her husband, Mike Tindall, have both taken an interest in riding and go jumping.
However, Mia does not always seem keen to take her mother’s advice: “I said something to Mia; she just rolled her eyes. I literally said the same thing to the other guys; they didn't roll their eyes at me.” She added, “I think I was probably like that with my mother and father too.”
