Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married on 18 May 2018 in St George’s Chapel – and there was one guest who found the service incredibly uncomfortable, the groom’s cousin Zara
The Royal Family were out in force to show their support to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on their wedding day.
The couple tied the knot in St George’s Chapel in Windsor on 19 May 2018, with the late Queen heading up the royal contingent, which included Prince Philip, then-Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate.
Zara Tindall and her husband Mike were also in attendance, joining her mother Princess Anne and brother Peter Phillips. But it turned out to be quite an uncomfortable experience for the Queen’s eldest granddaughter.
At the time, Zara was pregnant with her second child, daughter Lena, and speaking to the Daily Telegraph , Zara confessed that her unborn baby had been “kicking the hell out of her”.
She said: “I was uncomfortable! My bum sort of slid over either side and Lena kicked the hell out of me for an hour. It just wasn’t comfy at all and it probably showed on my face.”
During the ceremony, Bishop Michael Curry also delivered an energetic speech – which lasted 13 minutes. “It was just the general amount of time everything was taking,” added Zara. “I think my face was probably caught the point when I thought ‘Right he’s going to finish now’ and then he went off on another little story and it was like, “Really?'”
Lena was born exactly one month after the wedding, on 18 June. Zara and Mike went on to welcome their third child, and only son, Lucas, on 21 March 2021.
Having grown up together, Zara has a very close bond with her cousin Prince William and his wife Kate. Along with Mike, they are known to spend time together away from the spotlight – and it’s clear their children have also developed a very sweet connection.
Her relationship with Prince Harry, meanwhile, seems to have cooled. By the Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, the connection between tactile Zara and Harry seemed to have changed. Harry attended the celebrations with his wife Meghan Markle , and while Zara was seen speaking to the Prince she appeared to be much more distant towards him.
By this time, the royal family had been rocked and upset by allegations made by the Sussexes in their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. And the tension on the day was clear to eagled-eyed experts.
Zara did stop to speak to Harry on the steps of Westminster Abbey – noticeably her husband Mike stayed away from the couple. But body language expert Judi James told the Express at the time: “While Harry and Meghan stand locked together as a duo here though, holding hands and performing some rather forced smiles, with Meghan standing slightly behind Harry’s right arm as though in need of some form of protection, Zara’s body language lacks her normal displays of tactile warmth.
“Facing front rather than turning in to encourage communication, her arms are held firmly at the sides of her ribs, with the left hand clamped to the right wrist in the clasp in a barrier ritual that would imply there was no offer of PDAs or touch beyond the politest.”
Since then, Harry has continued to publicly criticise his family – most notably in his tell-all memoir Spare. And there were no royals at all in attendance when he celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games in London in May – including his once-close cousin Zara.
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