The Daily Beast
Alan Crowhurst/Getty ImagesQueen Elizabeth’s tenth great-grandchild was born Sunday—on the bathroom floor.Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, and her husband, the former England rugby player Mike, had not been planning a home birth but were unable to make it in time to hospital when the baby, a boy who is 22nd in line to the throne, arrived with a minimum of pomp and circumstance.The unusually informal circumstances of the latest royal birth were disclosed by Mike Tindall on the sports podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby.Mike said that after watching rugby matches all weekend: “Sunday got even better because a little baby boy arrived at my house.”As his co-hosts showered him with congratulations, Tindall said he was feeling “brilliant” after the birth at 6pm on Sunday night.At the time the podcast was recorded, the couple had not chosen a name, with Tindall saying: “We always struggle with that, we have never picked one before they arrive.” However a spokesperson for the couple subsequently said Wednesday: “Zara and Mike Tindall are happy to announce the birth of their third child, Lucas Philip Tindall.” The baby’s second name is a tribute to Prince Philip who is due to turn 100 in June. He will have no title as Princess Anne’s children were not given “HRH” styling at her request to enable them to lead more normal lives.A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are delighted with the news and look forward to meeting their 10th great-grandchild when circumstances allow.”Asked if the baby was “bonny” Tindall said he weighed 8lbs 4oz and arrived “very quickly.”“We didn’t make it to hospital. On the bathroom floor,” he said.Asked if he was hands-on at the birth, Tindall revealed that a friend of Zara’s who had been present at the birth of the couple’s previous children was on hand again.“She was there and recognized that we wouldn’t have got to hospital in time, 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.”Tindall added, “Fortunately the midwife who was going to meet us at the hospital wasn’t that far away so she drove up, and got there just as we’d assumed the position. The second midwife arrived just after the head had arrived!”Mike said: “As every man would say, she was a warrior, they always are, we can never judge a woman in terms of what they have to go through in childbirth. She was back up, we went for a walk this morning with him and it’s all good.”Tindall said he cut the cord: “I was literally like, ‘Snip. Snip-snip. I got a boy, I’m out of here.’Tindall added: “The best thing about being at home was, as soon as he’s wrapped up, skin on skin, [we went] straight downstairs, TV room, golf on, and I’m like, ‘This is what you and me are doing.’”He said he also watched a vintage rugby game from 1996 with his newborn son.“The training has begun already, twelve hours in,” his co-host joked.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
