Zara Tindall Is 'Very Proud' of Grandmother Queen Elizabeth Following Rare Televised Address
Zara Tindall is “very proud” of the message her grandmother Queen Elizabeth put out during her rare televised address amid the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday.
“What she said is completely, 100 percent what the country needed,” Tindall, who is the daughter of Princess Anne, told Good Morning Britain from her home in Gloucestershire on Monday. “I hope that everyone listens, and we can try and get back to normal.”
An estimated 23 million British TV viewers — around 1/3 of the entire U.K. population — tuned in to watch Tindall’s grandmother, 93, make her speech from the White Drawing Room in Windsor Castle, where she and husband Prince Philip, 98, have been staying since mid-March.
Millions more also watched online and throughout the 50 Commonwealth countries that carried the broadcast. It is just the fourth time the Queen has delivered a special address in her 68-year reign.
ITV Zara Tindall
“We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again,” the monarch said in the pre-recorded message shot with a solo camera operator, who was wearing gloves and a mask.
Tindall — who’s currently at home with husband Mike Tindall, 41, and their two daughters, 6-year-old Mia and Lena, who turns 2 in June — added that she’s also totally aware of just how difficult self-isolation has been for people, regardless of their situation.
“I think it’s really hard being locked up and not being allowed to do what you normally do,” she said. “Getting fresh air into your lungs and being out and about is kind of part of our motor program about staying active, staying fit.”
She continued, “We’re very lucky out in the country on the farm. But we’ve still got to look after the horses, so I can’t imagine how hard it is for people in the city — just trying to stay safe and not put pressure on our NHS.”
Buckingham Palace via Getty Images Queen Elizabeth
To help ease the strain on medics working in the U.K.s National Health Service — who added Prime Minister Boris Johnson to their growing list of hospitalized Covid-19 patients on Sunday — Tindall is taking part in the Equestrian Relief fundraiser.
The initiative aims to harness the huge popularity of equestrian sport in the U.K. to raise money for the NHS Covid-19 appeal. It will see five teams of famous faces from the horse racing, eventing and show jumping worlds take part in a series of events such as baking, painting and running — plus a mystery round called “Dark Horse,” where the contestants will have to reveal their ultimate secret party trick.
“Obviously, all of us are at home and those guys are out on the frontline, fighting this war,” Tindall said of the doctors and nurses working around the clock to protect the British people. “We want to try and do something to help them, to support them.”
“We’re all doing two challenges each and trying to use our competitive edge to try and raise some money and have a little competition against each other.”
