Meghan Markle’s bitter recollection of marrying into the Royal Family showed a sharp contrast to Mike Tindall’s experience, according to a new book.

The former England union rugby star has been married to Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, since 2011 and the couple share three children together – Mia, born in 2014, Lena, born in 2018 and, Lucas, born in 2021.

After leaving his sporting days behind, Mike has ventured out on different initiatives, including launching his own whiskey, appearing on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here and hosting a podcast show called The Good, The Bad and The Rugby with James Haskell and Alex Payne.

Now the three hosts are releasing their own book, named after their podcast, set to be released on October 24. Some segments of it have been serialised by the Telegraph.

In the book, Mike writes: “Believe it or not, marrying into the Royal family was pretty easy for me. They were always nice to me, and I was always nice to them. Simple really.”

His description bears huge differences from Meghan’sown recollection of marrying into the Royal Family.

The Duchess of Sussex previously spoke about how hard she had found it when she became a member of the Firm.

During her and Prince Harry’s Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, in 2022, the California-based royal suggested Firm members may not have been particularly warm towards her.

In one scene, she described meeting the Prince and Princess of Wales at Buckingham Palace, saying: “It’s so funny if I look back at it now because now I know so much and I’m so glad I didn’t then. Because I could just authentically be myself without so much preparedness.

“Even when Will and Kate came over and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner and I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. It’s like I was a hugger, I’ve always been a hugger. I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”

She added: “I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through to the inside…that there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door, and you go ‘Oh…ok we can relax now.’ But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.”

However, the duchess has always been extremely fond of the late Queen Elizabeth and claimed she had “always been wonderful” to her.

During her and Prince Harry’s infamous Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021, Meghan said: “The [late] Queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me. I mean, we had one of our first joint engagements together. She asked me to join her.

“We had breakfast together that morning, and she’d given me a beautiful gift, and I just really loved being in her company. She gave me beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace.

“And we were in the car going between engagements, and she has a blanket that sits across her knees for warmth. And it was chilly, and she was like, ‘Meghan, come on’ and put it over my knees as well. It made me think of my grandmother, where she’s always been warm and inviting and really welcoming.”

The Good, the Bad & the Rugby – Unleashed is released on October 24 and you can preorder it here.