Zara Phillips & Mike Tindall's Relationship Timeline Is So Low-Key

Phillips and Tindall first met back while watching the 2003 Rugby World Cup at the Manly Wharf bar in Sydney, Australia. At the time, Phillips had been in an on-and-off relationship with jockey Richard Johnson and Tindall had just been dropped from the England squad before the semi-finals. But that didn't stop sparks from flying.

Tindall told the story of what went down during a June 2011 interview with the Daily Mail. "She was on her gap year and in Australia with friends," he said. "Clive [Woodward, the coach for the England squad] had just told me I was dropped for the semi-final, so I went out for a beer with two others who weren't playing, Martin Corry and Austin Healey. Zara was in the same bar; we got introduced but didn't speak that much. Later on, Austin gave me her number and said, 'She wants you to text her, to say where you're all going out after the final so she can come along.'" The two started talking, and soon enough, Phillips invited Tindall to be her date to the North Cotswold Ball.

According to Tindall, the two didn't became an "official" couple until five months after meeting. "I think it was April 27 [2004] — that would be the official date we said we were going to go out with each other," Tindall told the Daily Mail during his 2011 interview. Soon after, Tindall was introduced to Phillips' mother, Princess Anne.

More than seven years after they first met, Phillips and Tindall announced their engagement, just about a month after Phillps' cousin Prince William announced his own engagement to Kate Middleton. The two were at home in their Regency town house in Cheltenham when he popped the question, and Tindall confessed to the Daily Mail he was pretty nervous to do so.

"I was upstairs, plucking up the nerve to do it, while Zara was downstairs watching television," he recounted. "It was all about shock value — I wanted to catch her when it was quiet and she wasn't expecting anything. I walked in there and got down on one knee, with the ring. She was on the sofa, so that made it easier. I said, 'Will you marry me?' She started laughing. She was completely in shock. Then, when she stopped laughing, she said, 'Yes.' That was a relief." He later added, "I had been thinking about it for ages, waiting to ask, but then my brother got engaged, and so did a certain Duke of Cambridge. I thought I'd better get on with it."

The couple tied the knot on July 30, 2011 at a private wedding with 400 of their closest friends and family members at the Canongate Kirk on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

In July 2013, Buckingham Palace announced Phillips and Tindall were expecting their first child, and on Jan. 17, 2014, Mia Grace was born. Tindall took to Twitter to share the big news, writing, "Thanks so much for all your kind messages. Definitely the best day of my life today, so happy! The girls are both doing great!"

Just about a year after Phillips had a miscarriage in December 2016, she confirmed she was expecting another baby. On June 18, 2018, their family of three became a family of four when Lena Elizabeth arrived. Soon after Lena's birth, Phillips revealed she'd actually had two miscarriages before she became pregnant with her second daughter.

In December 2020, Phillips and Tindall announced they are expecting their third child together. During an episode of his podcast The Good, The Bad, and The Rugby, Tindall confirmed the exciting news. "It's been a good week for me. [I] had a little scan last week — third Tindall on its way," he said. "I'd like a boy this time. I've got two girls. I would like a boy. I'll love it whether a boy or a girl — but please be a boy."

However, due to Phillips' past miscarriages, he was hesitant to reveal the due date. "We like to play our cards close to the chest," he said. "We haven't told Mia yet because we knew she would tell everyone at school. Now that we've gone through the scan, yes, [of] course we'll tell her."

Thanks for always keeping it real, you two.