Mike Tindall says bedtime with three kids is 'competitive'

Bedtime is a contact sport at Mike and Zara Tindall's house.

Speaking at the Henley Literature Festival, Mike Tindall called getting his three young children to sleep "competitive". HELLO!, which cited the Daily Mail for its account of his remarks, reported his description of a nightly race upstairs to bed.

The race involves ankle taps. Tindall joked it could one day lead to a broken leg.

He does not always win.

Tindall lives with his wife, Zara Tindall, and their children Mia, Lena and Lucas at Aston Farm on Princess Anne's Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire. Zara Tindall, an Olympic silver medallist, married Tindall in 2011.

Mia is 12, Lena is eight and Lucas is five. Mia was born on 17 January 2014 at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital weighing 7 lbs 12 oz. Lena was born in 2018 at Gloucester Royal Hospital, while Lucas was born in March 2021.

Lucas arrived in a hurry. Tindall announced the birth on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast, a rugby chat show he co-hosts, and said his son was born on the bathroom floor of the family's Gatcombe Park house.

Mia has been in the public eye since she was small. She served as a bridesmaid at Princess Eugenie's 2018 wedding to Jack Brooksbank.

Sleep is a running joke for Tindall. He slept through his first night on I'm A Celebrity, the ITV reality show that camps celebrities in the Australian jungle, "like a baby," according to his social media post, as reported by Express.

For parents of young children, this will sound familiar. Three children, one staircase and a father willing to play dirty. Bedtime has rules, and then it has ankle taps.