‘I’m looking forward to it’: Mike Tindall reveals sweet anniversary plans with wife Zara

The Queen’s granddaughter and her husband are set to celebrate their ninth wedding anniversary on July 30, and Mike Tindall is hoping to mark the occasion in style.

With the coronavirus lockdown restrictions easing and restaurants slowly reopening in the UK, the former England rugby player, 41, said he hoped they’d be able to go out for a date night, which would be “the biggest thing” to happen to them in three months.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to do something, we’ll have to wait and see what we can do and what we’re allowed to do,” Mike said on the breakfast program Lorraine on Tuesday.

Speaking from the couple’s Gloucestershire home, Gatcombe Park Estate, where his mother-in-law Princess Anne and brother-in-law Peter Phillips also live, he went on to say: “It’s quite good with the restaurants opening, we might be able to get a date night in, so that will be nice.

“You don’t normally ever plan a date night… you just can do it instantaneously,” Mike added. “Now you have to plan, you’re planning a week in advance. It’s the biggest thing in the last three months of your life. I’m looking forward to it.”

The couple married on July 20, 2011 at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. The ceremony was attended by senior royals including the Queen and Prince Phillip, Prince Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Catherine, Prince Harry and Zara’s mother Anne. Since then, the couple have welcomed two daughters, Mia, 6, and two-year-old Lena.

It comes just a few days after Mike opened up about his dad’s Parkinson’s condition and admitted that his father, Phillip Tindall, has deteriorated in the last few years. Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. It causes trembling in the hands, arms, legs, jaw and face.

“My dad has had Parkinson’s for the past 17 years,” he told the Daily Mail. “Over the last few years, I’ve really seen him deteriorate.”

Mike said it’s been especially hard for him to see Phillip’s condition worsen since it was his father, once captain of Otley rugby club in Gloucestershire, who inspired his love and passion for the game. “It’s about other sons and daughters not having to see their dad go through what I’ve seen mine go through,” he said.