The Prince of Wales is first in the line of succession and outranks all but the King, but that doesn't stop one of his close family members from giving him a gentle reality check. According to royal author Robert Jobson, Zara Tindall "can tell the heir to the throne he is being pompous" and she apparently does! Not only that, but the expert claimed to the Daily Mail that "he takes it".
Zara and William were born thirteen months apart and grew up together, with Robert noting that they enjoyed the "same Scottish summers, same Norfolk Christmases, same wet afternoons when the adults were elsewhere and the cousins were left to it".
"She knew him before he was a headline," the expert added, before stating that she "has no angle" when she tells the future King how it is.
Their closeness and her straight-forward approach seems to be why Prince William is happy to take her comments on the chin. Robert claims that Zara "did the same for Catherine, who married in from outside the tent and found waiting there a woman who had spent her whole life declining to be impressed by the tent.'
Unlike the Prince and Princess of Wales, Zara Tindall has never had a title. She's grown up in the Royal Family, but with a different perspective on things to William and can maybe see the pomp and circumstance of it all with more of an outsider's eye.
Robert reflects, "she was there in 1997, watching a boy she had grown up with become public property inside a week. Very few people alive can say that."
Zara and William are still close as adults and are often seen embracing and joking together at events like Ascot. As well as being someone who can tell the Prince off for being "pompous", she's also the only royal to be made godparent to any of his children.
She's Prince George's godmother and her children have formed an adorable bond with the Wales kids over the years, echoing their parents' relationship. They used to get up to mischief as children and the professional equestrian was the reason Prince William once got told off by Queen Elizabeth.
"We were chasing Zara around who was on a go-cart, and Peter and I managed to herd Zara into a lamppost. And the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her, and I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt," he explained in the Our Queen at Ninety documentary.
The Prince said the Queen "came charging over" and gave him and Peter Phillips "the most almighty b*********, and that sort of stuck in [his] mind from that moment on".
Meanwhile, royal expert and author Ingrid Seward previously shared her belief that Zara is the "sister William never had". She claimed to Hello! that the duo have "always had terrific fun together" and have always supported each other.
"She has the best of both worlds. She understands what royal life is like, but she can live her life as she chooses, without the pressure faced by more senior royals," Ingrid added.
