Mike Tindall accidentally revealed Zara's private Instagram account

Uh oh

Mike Tindall and Zara Tindall attend day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 12, 2023 in London, England.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

So, intellectually, many of us assume that the younger contingent of the Royal Family all have private Instagram accounts (case in point: Meghan Markle revealed that's how she and Prince Harry first connected).

But since we don't ever get to see said private accounts, it's obviously not something we spend much time thinking about — until someone in the family commits a bit of an unfortunate blunder...

That's precisely what happened to poor old Mike Tindall recently. The former rugby pro reposted a photo originally posted by journalist Di Stewart, of her interviewing Mike and his wife Zara at the Ryder Cup golf tournament over the weekend.

Unfortunately, Mike didn't notice that Di had tagged Zara's private Instagram account in her post, giving his followers a direct route to finding out Zara's handle, as reported by OK!.

Most major media outlets have opted not to reveal the handle out of respect for Zara's privacy, and since this was so obviously a mistake. Mike promptly realised what he'd done, and took down the post.

OK! reports that Zara counts 207 followers on her private Instagram account, whereas Mike — who has a public account of his own — has a whopping 597k followers.

While this was potentially more serious, it's not the first time Mike has made a public mistake concerning Zara.

In an adorably unfortunate moment they recorded for a podcast, Mike told Zara: "In 2012, you married a legend." But after a beat, Zara quickly reminded him that they'd got married in 2011, which rather took away from Mike's show-offy joke. At the time, both of them took this on the chin — and we're sure they will this time too.

By way of proof, might we point you to the fact that everyone is always praising those two for being such a fun-loving and down to earth couple. We rest this case.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.