Zara and Mike Tindall proudly share three children: Mia, aged ten, Lena, aged five, and Lucas, who recently celebrated his third birthday. The birth of their youngest, Lucas, was quite an eventful moment, occurring on the bathroom floor of their Gatcombe Park residence in March 2021.
Interestingly, Zara became the first royal woman in over 50 years to give birth at home instead of in a hospital setting. The last royal mother to do so was Princess Margaret, sister of the late Queen, who welcomed her daughter Lady Sarah at home in Kensington Palace in 1964.
Queen Elizabeth II herself also opted for home births for her four children, which took place in Buckingham Palace and Clarence House.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast, proud father Mike said: “Sunday got even better because a little baby boy arrived at my house,” adding how little Lucas, “Arrived very quickly. Didn’t make it to hospital. On the bathroom floor.”
He told listeners: “So yeah, it was running to the gym, get a mat, get into the bathroom, get the mat on the floor, towels down, brace, brace, brace.”
Mike also added how his wife’s friend Dolly, who was also at the birth of their two daughters, Mia and Lena, was present: “She was there and recognised that we wouldn’t have got to hospital in time.”
He added: “Fortunately the midwife who was going to meet us at the hospital wasn’t that far away so she drove up just as we had assumed the posit (position) and the second midwife arrived just after the head had arrived.”
Mike mentioned that their daughters were away for the day as Zara had experienced contractions throughout the night.
He also spoke of the pros of having a home birth, revealing: “The best thing about being at home, the best thing was, as soon as he’s wrapped up, he’s skin on skin, straight downstairs. TV room. Golf on. This is what we’re doing.”
