A former BBC royal correspondent believes it’s “refreshing” to think of the Royal Family fooling around after their light-hearted podcast revelations and said that the family was very different to the cold and distant one previously described by Meghan Markle.
Key royals appeared on Mike Tindall’s podcast ‘The Good, the Bad and the Rugby’ and proved the Royal Family enjoy everything from playing beer pong to cold water swimming.
For Jennie Bond, the clear sense of fun, informality, and shared laughs between the family jarred claims previously made by Meghan Markle on the Netflix series where she stated the Royal Family can be standoffish in private.
Referring to the podcast content, Ms Bond said: “Mike and his rugby colleagues have a wonderful way of teasing out little titbits about life behind the Palace walls.
“It’s always fascinating to get a glimpse of how the family get on with one another, and also what they get up to in private.”
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Commenting on the fun happenings at the Palace, Ms Bond said: “The image, for example, of Princess Anne chasing William, and now his children, around the ‘Balmoral Square’ and often winning because she is ‘good at corners’ illustrates that, despite her sometimes rather stiff appearance, she’s a thoroughly fun Aunt to have around.”
It appears cheeky antics often occur behind palace walls, even in the present day. Speaking to OK! Magazine, the royal expert added: “The younger generation have obviously moved on from the games the late Queen and her family used to play – often card games like Racing Demon.
“They were all fiercely competitive at that, but now it seems Beer Pong is a new favourite and inspires the same competitive spirit, obviously fuelled by a bit of alcohol! It’s refreshing to think of them fooling around, enjoying such a daft game, and simply being ‘normal’.”
In Prince Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary, Ms Markle had a different viewpoint. Meghan Markle said: “I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside. That there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and ‘phew I can relax now’ but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Ms Bond believes Meghan’s broadcasted views on the Royal Family, proved she was “naive”.
She added: “The picture we got from this podcast was of a family very far removed from the one described by Meghan when she complained about how formal and standoffish she found them. They are a family where trust is everything. And it obviously takes a certain amount of time to build up trust. If that surprised Meghan, then she was being naive.”
Adding her thoughts on the image Meghan painted of a cold and distant family, Ms Bond said: “It can’t be that easy to look relaxed in the grand setting of Windsor Castle, but it was obvious that Mike, his mother-in-law, William and Catherine, have an easy relationship with one another.”
