Zara is having way too much fun (and making far too much money) to be a princess, reveals NATASHA LIVINGSTONE

Who can blame the King if he really wants to make Zara Tindall a princess? Thanks to a combination of illness (the King and the Princess of Wales) and disgrace (Prince Andrew), the Royal Family has never needed reinforcements so badly.

Only last Sunday, Zara’s mother, Princess Anne, joined the growing ranks of the disabled after being hospitalized with a concussion and minor head wounds after being hit by a horse. Naturally, Zara was one of the first to rush to her bedside at Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

So it’s tempting to believe reports from earlier this month that Charles wanted to give his 43-year-old niece a title and, with it, an important new role within the Firm.

For Zara – warm, steadfast and, take note of Andrew and Harry, universally beloved – is easy to imagine as a valuable addition to the beleaguered House of Windsor. In Kate’s temporary absence, she would certainly add lustre to the royal list.

Determined to give her children some semblance of a ‘normal’ upbringing, Anne rejected titles for Zara and brother Peter. So the siblings remained outsiders, members of the royal family but not ‘working’ royals.

However, it wouldn’t be far-fetched at all to imagine Zara sharing a joke with a sergeant major while inspecting troops, charming hospital patients or flying the flag abroad. As with everything else in her life, she takes on new challenges with enthusiasm.

Her husband would also be an asset. In the past, the blunt Mike Tindall, no stranger to barroom banter, might have proven a liability. No longer. Charm and infectious humor have endeared him to the public. The late queen was very fond of him.

But don’t expect horse-mad Zara, the reluctant royal, to come to the rescue on her horse any time soon. She’s simply having too much fun.

Her life is a dizzying social whirl. Barely a week goes by without Zara and Mike, 45, attending some flashy event. Last week they were at the hottest show in town, Taylor Swift’s sold-out concert at Wembley.

While other members of the royal family stick to their agreements, the Tindalls always seem to have a great time.

Thanks to her Olympic career (she won silver at the 2012 Games), her marriage to a former England rugby captain and the fact that she’s a highly recognisable royal, Zara is something of a celebrity herself.

Nor is it a burden on the taxpayer. As a ‘private individual’, Zara is completely free to earn a living through sponsorship agreements.

A collaboration with sportswear brand Musto is reportedly worth £500,000, a deal with Land Rover £200,000, Rolex £100,000, VST Enterprises £200,000 and jewelery brand Calleija £80,000.

Mike isn’t bad at landing deals either. He’s said to be the fourth richest former rugby player in the country, and his role in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2022 helped him land a raft of sponsorships and endorsements.

Some estimates put the couple’s fortune at £30 million. Would these deals have been so beneficial if Zara had not been born sixth in line to the throne? Unlike Harry and Meghan, the Tindalls have managed to avoid accusations of exploiting her status.

Zara also works with charities linked to racing: CatWalk in New Zealand, Retraining of Racehorses, World Horse Welfare and the Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund.

A friend thought it was highly unlikely that Zara would be made a princess, saying: ‘If she were a full-time member of the Royal Family she wouldn’t be allowed to do her sponsorship deals, so it would be very difficult for her financially.

‘Now she can attend royal events, but also enjoy her private life as a mother of three young children.’

Money aside, one look at her diary shows why she’s in no hurry to give up a very enviable life. In addition to Taylor Swift’s performance, Zara has enjoyed hospitality at P!nk’s London concert this summer, as well as a film premiere, a charity golf match and nearly every day of Royal Ascot.

In the spring, Zara and Mike flew to the Bahrain Grand Prix and two weeks later they were at the Cheltenham Festival, famous for its combination of drink, music and racing.

But it’s not all play and no work. Zara was named Sports Personality of the Year in 2006 after winning the Eventing World Championship in Germany. She is still a dedicated rider, a regular at equestrian events. She participated in Badminton Horse Trials last month. Friends say Zara sees herself primarily as “a competitive rider and a mother.”

Not that she shirks broader family responsibilities. In May she helped William organize a garden party at Buckingham Palace and she is a regular at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, where she hugged the king last month.

But she enjoys freedoms that many people in her family don’t have, something that is clearly reflected in the new year.

After attending church at Sandringham with the rest of the Royals on Christmas Day, Zara and Mike flew to Australia for twelve days of racing organized by thoroughbred sales company Magic Millions. It wasn’t just the Gold Coast that attracted them. Zara is being sponsored by Magic Millions in a deal said to be worth £125,000 a year.

Photos showed the couple having fun with Harry’s Argentinian polo buddy Nacho Figueras and his wife Delfina Blaquier, and going on a double date with actor Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky.

Zara also promoted the brand partner of Magic Millions, a shopping center, on Instagram, posing for photos while browsing designer boutiques and drinking wine.

The couple then travelled to Iceland. Snaps shared by Mike’s 600,000 Instagram followers showed them sitting on glaciers, snorkelling in wetsuits and trying on big fur hats. The carefree approach went down well with the public.

Polls at the start of the year showed Zara was the fifth most popular royal, behind the late Queen Princess Anne and William and Kate.

Untainted by scandal, many consider Zara and Mike ‘relatable’. Friends say ‘what you see is what you get’.

An insider who once worked with Zara says: ‘She is tactile, friendly and down to earth. Don’t forget, she was the first royal woman to have a stallion in her tongue.’

The teenage piercing earned Zara the nickname ‘the rebellious royal’ and friends admit she had a wild side before she met Mike. One pal, who bumped into Zara at high-end parties in west London and Cheltenham, said the young royal enjoyed ‘wild nights out’ and could ‘have a pint like any rugby man’.

She must be more than a match for her cousin William, who Mike has mischievously dubbed ‘One Pint Willy’, apparently because he ‘isn’t the best drinker’.

In his biography of Zara, author Brian Hoey wrote that Zara’s wilder years coincided with her relationship with jockey Richard Johnson. “Zara admits that she enjoyed drinking during that period, perhaps more than she should,” he wrote. ‘But she never smoked or tried drugs. She denied being seen stretched out in the gutter, too drunk to know what was going on.”

Mike is said to have had a ‘calming influence’ on Zara. Another friend said: ‘It’s clear she and Mike have a really good marriage, they’re very tactile with each other. You see the kids playing at different horse trials. They’re a very normal family.’

Since 2013, the Tindalls have lived on the luxurious Gatcombe estate in Gloucestershire, which they share with Anne. It is a permanent home for their children Mia, ten, Lena, six, and Lucas, three.

So the Tindalls were baffled by recent rumors that the family was planning to move to Australia. Spoiler: they’re not.

Despite official denials of an elevation to Princess, the idea of ​​Zara playing a bigger role in the Firm appeals to many. But to use a term familiar to this rider: don’t put your shirt on yet, because Princess Zara is a hopeless creature.