Zara Tindall's Relationship With Princess Anne Is More Relatable Than You'd Think

Zara Tindall, one of Queen Elizabeth's favorite grandchildren and daughter of Anne, Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips, grew up as a member of the British royal family. That's a position with inherent privilege that the rest of us can only imagine. There's also a bit of a stereotype of upper class parents being distant from their children and letting nannies or governesses do all the heavy lifting. But despite Zara's rarified upbringing, she still has quite the relatable relationship with her mother. She's able to joke and tease her mom, like the time when she publicly outed her mother for a "quite annoying" ability that she has. It was in the documentary "Anne: The Princess Royal at 70" and Zara and her brother Peter Phillips are talking about their mother and how irritatingly well she can remember information.

"She's like a sponge," Zara said, "It's unbelievable the information that's stored in her brain. It's incredible." Then she looked at her brother and noted, "it's quite annoying as well," and Peter agreed with her! We can see how that having great recall of all kinds of detailed info could be both amazing and exasperating. It would be a lot to live up to, having a mother who's able to remember so many things so easily and so quickly.

Zara Tindall feeling confident enough on camera to point out, in jest, one of Princess Anne's "annoying" traits goes a long way to showing how comfortable she is with her mother. It doesn't surprise us that Zara was able to give her mother a bit of a hard time — Zara's already proved that she's inherited Princess Anne's rebellious nature.

Behind any rebellion and teasingly giving her mother a hard time, it seems clear that Zara has a lot of love for her mom. Princess Anne had a scary incident with a horse in June 2024, which left her with a concussion and amnesia, and it left Zara distressed — quite reasonably. "It's really shaken Zara to the core and she's desperately hoping this memory is temporary," someone close to the family told OK! Magazine. "This has been a huge wake-up call for everyone in the family and they're rightfully distressed."

Princess Anne's accident came at a particularly stressful time for the royals, with both King Charles III and Catherine, Princess of Wales having had their own health issues in recent months. And it's always a stressful time when your mother's health takes a hit, no matter if you're a royal or not.

Zara Tindall, and her brother, could have been given HRH titles when they were born. They had been given the go-ahead from Queen Elizabeth, but it was Princess Anne who decided against it. "I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles," she told Vanity Fair in 2020. Zara's love for her mother includes her thankfulness for that decision. It gave them more of a typical childhood and helped give them more of a work ethic.

Though even with that nod towards normalcy and other aspects of their relatable relationship, Zara and Princess Anne have a unique mother-daughter bond that not many people have. Not just that they're royalty, but that they're Olympians. Both women competed for the Great Britain equestrian team — Princess Anne in Montreal in 1976 and Zara in London in 2012. Touchingly, it was Princess Anne who hung Zara's silver medal around her neck at the games.