Princess Kate Middleton, Prince William and Princess Anne made a surprise guest appearance this weekend on sports podcast The Good, The Bad & The Rugby, talking about their love for the game.
The podcast is co-hosted by Mike Tindall, former professional rugby player and husband of Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Phillips, as well as fellow former professional rugby player James Haskell and television presenter Alex Payne.
The episode dealt with a range of topics around sport, including the competitiveness between Prince William and Kate Middleton, the importance of sports for children and the different sports that their kids have been playing, and William’s emotional response to watching his cousin - Tindall’s wife Zara - winning the 2006 European equestrian championship.
The episode debuted on 9 September and was recorded at Windsor Castle, ahead of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ trip to France for the Rugby World Cup 2023. The three royals are all patrons of different rugby bodies, including the Welsh Rugby Union, Scottish Rugby Union and English Rugby Football Union.
“The Rugby World Cup is up and running and as a result we have managed to line up an interview with the patrons of the WRU, RFU, and SRU,” said Payne at the start of the episode. “To Mike, they are in-laws, to the rest of us they are the Prince and Princess of Wales, [and] the Princess Royal.”
A number of other rugby podcasts are also covering the World Cup, including BBC Sounds’ Rugby Union Daily. This year, the event also launched its very own official podcast titled The Official Rugby World Cup 2023 podcast in partnership with Asahi Super Dry, hosted by television presenter Gethin Jones.
The Good, The Bad, & The Rugby launched in 2020 under podcast production company Folding Pocket, which was co-founded by Tindall, Haskell, and actor James Nesbitt. Other podcasts within Folding Pocket’s portfolio include sports podcasts Jermain Defoe: Outside The Box, Proper Football, and Moment of Truth for the BBC, comedy podcast Three Little Words for Amazon Music, and more.
In addition to producing podcasts in partnership with other podcast platforms, the production company also works with content agency Platform Media to deliver branded podcasts including women’s rugby podcast The Good, The Scaz, & The Rugby in partnership with telecoms company Vodafone.
