Why Prince William earned his boozy nickname from royal family members

‘It’s out there now, sorry,’ Tindall says after revealing William’s nickname

Mike Tindall has revealed the clever nickname he gave to the Prince of Wales.

On Wednesday 20 December, the royal family member appeared on the Seven: Rob Burrow podcast with his wife, Zara Tindall. Early in the episode, Burrow asked the couple whether they had any nicknames for each other or other members of the royal family.

“We basically call each other ‘munchkins’ a lot, don’t we? Or ‘my love,’” Mike told podcast co-hosts Rob Burrow and his wife Lindsey, as he joked that it would be up to Zara to reveal what name she’s given him in her list of phone contacts. The 45-year-old former rugby player then took the opportunity to share the unique moniker he gave his cousin-in-law, Prince William.

“The Prince of Wales is known to me as ‘One Pint Willy’ because he’s not the best of drinkers, coming from a sport where it is built on the social aspect and a couple of beers being sunk quite often,” he said. “That is one I will definitely give away for the Prince of Wales. One Pint Willy. It’s out there now, sorry sir.”

Zara chimed in: “You’re in so much trouble! A lot of those nicknames kind of fly around.”

The 42-year-old professional equestrian went on to share what she tends to call Mike, including “munchkin”, “Mikey” or “Michael Tindall” when he’s “not listening.”

“He is in my phone as something else, and it ends with ‘kitten,’ ” she told the podcast co-hosts.

“You can fill the first word in,” Mike said in response.

In addition to appearing on the podcast, the father of three also has a podcast of his own, titled The Good, The Bad, And The Rugby alongside James Haskell and Alex Payne. One episode featured William and his wife, Kate Middleton, as well as the Princess Royal, Anne. During the group conversation, Haskell poked fun at the Prince and Princess of Wales’ competitiveness by comparing them to one famous couple on thesitcom Friends.

“Just how competitive are both of you?” he asked the pair. “Because, Mike, I’m not going to lie, but he has made out [that] both of you are super, super competitive, a bit like Monica and Chandler from Friends.”

Kate chimed in with a laugh and gave her candid reaction to the claim, responding: “I’m really not that competitive. I don’t know where this is coming from.” As she made the remark, William proceeded to laugh and poke fun at his wife’s competitive nature by giving her a subtle wink, seemingly in an effort to confirm that she is actually competitive.

During the podcast episode, Haskell proceeded to make jokes about the couple’s behaviour during a game of table tennis, saying: “It will go on for hours and hours, and be like, double or quits.”

Kate agreed, before explaining why she and William haven’t “actually managed to finish a game of tennis” together. “It becomes a mental challenge between the two of us,” she said, before William agreed and added: “Yeah, it’s who can out mental each other.”

When asked if he and Kate’s three children - Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five - have inherited their parents’ competitive side, William said: “Just a little bit.”

However, according to Kate, she’s still excited to see if their children’s competitive side will grow over time or not.

“What I think is really interesting is that they are all obviously different temperaments,” she said. “And as they’re growing and trying out different sports, they’re obviously still really young, it’s going be interesting to see how that grows and develops.”