Though Zara Tindall is the daughter of Princess Anne and the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth, she’s an equestrian and Olympic silver medalist in her own right. Along with her husband, retired professional rugby player Mike Tindall, she has translated some of that success into lucrative brand partnerships. A longtime spokesperson for Land Rover, she also has designed capsule collections for jewelry brand Calleija and outerwear company Musto over the last few years. On Thursday, Mike and Zara expanded their portfolio to technology when they announced a partnership with a company building a COVID-19 immunity-tracking app meant for athletes.
The Tindalls will be ambassadors for V-Health Passport, an app built to help sports governing boards decide which players can be cleared for competition amid the pandemic, according to a press release from VST Enterprises. The release doesn’t disclose whether or not the couple will be accepting a fee for their work, but branding experts who spoke to the Daily Mail estimated that they might make as much as £200,000, or about $250,000, from the deal.
The company was founded by Louis-James and Nicole Davis, two entrepreneurs who have been photographed with the Tindalls at past private events. In a statement, Mike praised the company, while Zara said that she thought the technology had promise beyond the pandemic. “I think the potential of this technology is really interesting and has so many uses across the horse racing and equestrian worlds from horse passports and bloodstock sales to tickets for the horse racing season,” she said.
When her two children were born, Anne decided against giving them titles in the hopes that they would be able to lead more normal lives. Even though they aren’t official royalty, the family members without titles still find themselves under fire for promoting projects that draw on their royal connections. In January, Zara’s older brother, Peter Phillips, was criticized in the tabloids for appearing in a series of Chinese milk ads that mentioned his childhood love for the Jersey cows on the queen’s Longleat Estate.
When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry left the royal family earlier this year, it revealed just how complicated the rules around the royal family and sponsorships can be. As senior royals, they couldn’t have outside jobs or accept fees for their work. Now that they are no longer representatives of the queen, they are allowed to earn money, but can’t use their titles when they are doing private business. That term of their settlement with the queen might be why the prince instructed a new acquaintance to “just call me Harry,” at a sustainability summit in March.
Because of their athletic achievements, Zara and Mike have had more latitude to pursue partnerships and an easier time finding brands who won’t draw on the couple’s royal ties in their ad campaigns. But this newest contract is coming in the midst of a major crisis and the product is directly related to it. We might never know if the queen is already expressing some disappointment behind closed doors.
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