As Harry and Meghan plan a ‘royal’ trip to Australia, after their ‘royal’ trip to Jordan, Chris Riches asks if they regret the fake path their life has taken.

Zara and Mike Tindall at the Cheltenham Festival this week (Image: Getty)

While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle plan a faux-royal visit Down Under next month, easy-going Zara and Mike Tindall are showing the pair what they could have been. Zara, 44, and Mike, 47 – neither working royals – are always seen at the Cheltenham Festival every year, with businesses tied closely to the horseracing and countryside community.

Set apart from the main core royals at Windsor and Sandringham, the husband and wife have never feared being dragged into her uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s or aunt Sarah Ferguson’s scandals. Yet the King’s niece has remained a close supportive member of the extended family, sometimes ‘stepping in’ for family members with minor duties that were performed by a royal in the past.

In June 2025, she presented the Royal Windsor Cup trophy -a task traditionally performed by her late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II at an event where she was noted as “stepping in for the King” in a supportive capacity.

Recent reports last year even hinted that she could be “shadowing” her mother’s duties to provide informal, future aid when Princess Anne’s schedule is packed.

It has also been suggested Prince William may be considering asking Zara to oversee equestrian-related functions on behalf of the Royal Family, as that is her expertise – such as at Royal Ascot.

Ex-England rugby ace Mike Tindall is popular with the public and Princess Charlotte is close friends with Zara and Mike’s daughter Mia.

Mike has also remarked that his family’s growth has been “quite intertwined with” the Waleses, as their children are of similar ages.

Yet with Meghan and Harry reportedly considering flying back to the UK for a visit in the summer, it is hard to imagine either relaxing among the public – even at an event likely to be packed by ‘their sort’ like Cheltenham.

In fact, with their obsession about security, Meghan would likely run a mile if a racegoer staggered in her direction armed with nothing more than a sloshing pint of Guinness.

Harry and Meghan can only watch on from the US (Image: Getty)

‘Megxit’ was sparked after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle demanded a unique hybrid model of being working royals in the UK and US while staying financially independent and able to rake in cash from their new ‘Sussex’ brand.

The late Queen ruled their “half-in, half-out” proposal unworkable by stressing that one cannot “commercially trade” on their Royal status while still serving the Crown.

But despite most Britons deeming ex-pat Harry, 41, and his actress wife Meghan, 44, pretty meaningless they still like to burn carbon and jet across the world pretending they are full-time UK royals on tour.

Pre-Megxit they had the nation’s best wishes, but although we sometimes love running our own football team, Government or country down, we don’t like millionaires in LA slagging Britain off.

We certainly don’t need a prince who once donned a Nazi fancy dress outfit to preach to us that the UK is a racist nation, or as he put it a country with “unconscious bias”.

So while Harry and Meghan jet the world – last month it was Jordan, next month it’s Australia – pretending they are meaningful royals, they can look at Zara and Mike at Cheltenham and think: “Damn, that could have been us.”