Zara Tindall was spotted watching the races at Cheltenham Racecourse with a “lady in waiting”.
The only daughter of Princess Anne was spotted being accompanied at Cheltenham by her close friend Dolly Maude.
Like most other attendees at the racecourse, the trained maternity nurse sported a badge pinned on the lapel of her coat.
However, rather than showing her name, the pin read “lady in waiting”, a title normally given to women attending high-ranking female members of the Royal Family.
Zara, however, hasn’t adopted this tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, her spokesman insisted.
He told the Daily Mail: “It was a joke. Zara doesn’t have any sort of lady-in-waiting.”
Commentator Richard Eden claimed the badge granted Zara’s friend entry to the highly restricted Royal Box at Cheltenham.
Ms Maude and Zara, who share a love for horses, have been friends for years, and are known to have lived together since 2003.