Expert reveals moment Zara acted as a ‘buffer’ between Harry and Mike,
As Mike and Zara Tindall quietly celebrated their ivory wedding anniversary on Wednesday, they appear just as in love as they were when they first met in 2003.
Their secret to a happy marriage seems simple: they live relatively out of the spotlight, they share a sense of humour and are supportive of one another both in their careers and socially.
So it is no surprise that after 14 years of marriage, they know each other well enough to read between the lines and step in when an awkward situation needs diffusing.
This was the case during the Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022.
Body language expert Judi James told Daily Mail: ‘Harry and Meghan emerge hand-in-hand with Harry’s facial expression suggesting tension and fear, while Meghan is wearing her most gracious royal smile.
‘Zara and her brother Peter Phillips appear to have been chosen as the flanking “hosts” as Harry and Meghan step out into the sunshine, completely aware that the crowd outside might be greeting them with boos.
‘While Zara and Peter would still see Harry as a much-loved cousin, Mike would have been under no matching pressure to push feelings about loyalty to one side and hold his nose to treat Harry and his wife with any form of polite PDA.
‘Mike is known for his authentic and often spontaneous body language displays and politely faking it is possibly not in his repertoire.’
While Zara was seen chatting with Meghan and Harry, Mike appeared to avoid conversation with the Sussexes.
Judi continued: ‘Putting this brief but emotionally and even constitutionally powerful moment under the microscope I can see what looks like a choreographed ritual that ensures that both polite family niceties are maintained but without any demands for Mike to be seen as a hypocrite.’
Since childhood, cousins Harry and Zara have shared a close relationship – but this seems to have grown more tense with the events of Megxit.
Harry is godfather to Mike and Zara’s youngest daughter, Lena, and the Duke attended Mike’s stag do in 2011.
Mike cheekily offered to be Harry’s best man when he announced his engagement to Meghan and the couple have also stood by the Sussexes on their rare return trips to the UK following Megxit.
The body language expert said: ‘Mike’s career made him a team player, respecting loyalty above all else and he brought those values to the royal Firm when he married Zara.
‘His role as affectionate, protective alpha “uncle” to William alone could have made any form of positive response to Harry untenable in public, despite the strong relationship between Harry and the Tindalls in the past.
‘So, we see what looks like an example of the royals spinning and turning like clockwork to protect Mike as much as Harry here.’
She continued: ‘Mike performs two “ignoring and distancing” rituals here, looking off into the distance and lifting his order of service to act as a large barrier.
‘As he stares away, he starts to bang the order of service against the palm of his free hand.
‘This is a metronomic self-attack gesture that suggests impatience and suppressed irritation.
‘Mike’s behaviour is also seen to gain a complimentary response from Harry’s body language.
‘As Harry walks past Mike, ignored, he lifts his own order of service and wipes his mouth with the corner, in a subtle mimic gesture that suggests he does feel wounded or hurt by the snub.’
She continued: ‘Peter and Zara turn in towards Harry and Meghan in an announcement gesture to signal they will be providing the buffer and shared social smiles.
‘Zara smiles but the way she steps away as she turns to face Harry hints at some awkwardness.
‘There is a small clue that she might have been planning on just chatting to her cousin while Peter chatted to his wife but at one point Meghan seems to lean in to join the conversation with Zara and at that point Zara appears to pull away.
‘Zara and Mike appear totally happy with their choreography, as Zara walks straight back to her husband once Harry and Meghan have gone.
‘It’s possible that Zara wanted to protect and endorse her husband’s reputation for authentic body language responses and proudly did the etiquette thing so he wouldn’t have to.
‘One important-looking cog in the wheel of all this satisfactory circling is the Earl of Snowdon.
‘He is the royal that chats animatedly to Mike, giving him a valid excuse for any distraction. We can even see Princess Margaret’s son circles around Mike with his back to Harry at one point, to act like a screen between the two men.’
The Thanksgiving Service came at a challenging time for the relationship between the Sussexes and the Firm.
It was Harry and Meghan’s first event in two years alongside the Royal Family since they stepped down as working royals.
In the period between stepping down in January 2020 and their presence at the service, Harry and Meghan had sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a no-holds-barred interview where they accused an unnamed member of the Royal Family of racism.
Harry had reportedly hardly seen his father and brother since emigrating to California with Meghan and at the service, the Sussexes sat at opposite sides of the cathedral to Kate and William.
Crowds cheered the pair as they arrived, with the couple smiling and waving – but both boos and cheers could be heard as they departed.
And, although they would have known it had they seen their plummeting approval ratings in opinion polls, it was the first time they had to face up to the new reality that the public was turning against them.
They arrived ten minutes before William and Kate and were seated to the right. When William and Kate arrived to loud cheers, they were whisked off to the left.
The late Queen missed the historic event following a last-minute decision announced by Buckingham Palace after she experienced ‘discomfort’ during the Trooping the Colour parade the day before. The Duke of York was also absent after testing positive for Covid.
Indicative of their new more minor position within the Royal Family, the Sussexes were seated in the second row, behind the Wessex family and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, with Harry next to Princess Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank and Meghan next to Princess Margaret’s daughter Lady Sarah Chatto.
Across the aisle, Charles and Camilla had seats beside them for William and Kate and the Princess Royal and her husband, Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence.
Harry was seen appearing to enjoy a joke with someone seated across the aisle. Beatrice, sitting a few seats down from him, was also grinning in the same direction.
But William was not pictured smiling throughout the ceremony and did not exchange words with his brother.
Harry and Meghan previously told the Queen they would keep a low profile during the Jubilee celebrations and would only take part in official engagements – Her Majesty ‘ordered the family to come together’ with ‘no dramas’ to overshadow the events.
During the Jubilee celebrations, Meghan and Harry made just one official appearance with the rest of the Royal Family but were otherwise largely hidden from the public and the media throughout the celebrations.
A source said at the time: ‘It’s a typically elegant solution as you would expect. The Queen wants her family there and they are still part of it. But in a carefully controlled fashion.’
The Daily Mail reported that the couple were upset to learn that they would not be permitted to join the Queen and other family members in the main VIP party.
After the service, it was reported that Mike ‘insulted’ Harry. A source overheard Mike talking to a fellow guest and referred to the Duke’s behaviour as that of a ‘b******’.
Mike has previously joked that members of the Royal Family would like to ‘throw a few punches’ at the Duke of Sussex.
Since the incident, Harry has lost a legal challenge over the levels of security he and the family are entitled to while in the UK.
He had been seeking to overturn a decision that had downgraded his security after he stopped being a working royal and moved to the US with Meghan and their two children – Archie and Lilibet.
In his sit-down interview with the BBC shortly after losing his appeal, the Duke said he wanted to reconcile with his family, while alleging his father, King Charles, was not speaking with him.
He said there had been ‘so many disagreements’ in the family, but the ‘only thing that’s left’ is the row over his security – which he said had ‘always been the sticking point’.
As reports of peace talks made headlines and observers speculate whether Meghan and Harry will attend the Birmingham Invictus Games in 2027, the question of whether a reconciliation is on the cards couldn’t be more poignant.
However, many observers believe that the relationship is damaged beyond repair and that extending an olive branch at this point is too little too late as Harry continues to make public jabs at the Firm, which his grandmother, the late Queen, devoted her entire life to serving.
