Sign up to our free email to get all the latest royal news and pictures We have more newsletters Sign up to our free email to get all the latest royal news and pictures We have more newsletters Mike Tindall has candidly discussed the challenges in his marriage to Zara Tindall , revealing that despite royal ties, life hasn't been a fairy tale. The former England rugby star, 45, who recently featured on ITV's Grand Slammers, shared an inside look at HMP The Mount and tackled a unique sports initiative there. Set within one of the few remaining men's prison rugby grounds in England, Mike joined fellow rugby veterans to coach inmate players for a match against the Aussies.
In a heartfelt moment from the series he opened up about his transition from sports to real life with Zara, King Charles III's niece. He confessed: "Everyone thinks that just by marrying Zara that means it's all fine and dandy..
. But that doesn't stop the fact that you need a job. And it's not that easy, you know - you get quite institutionalised into rugby, it's a way of life and you leave the game and that's not there.
"I don't think you can ever sort of describe when you're so used to being around that many people, and understanding, because of it being ingrained in you, where you fit in to then not being that person," reports the Daily Record . Mike continued: "Zara would say if she was honest it was probably a year it took me to figure out what I was, who I was going to be. You've got to then go carve wher.