Mike Tindall’s nickname for Prince William is One Pint Willy, ‘he’s not the best of drinkers’

In the past two years, people have been trying to make “Mike Tindall and Prince William are BFFs” into a storyline. There’s a tortured history there, one which I’ve detailed previously – when Prince Harry married Meghan, suddenly Mike and Zara felt like they had to “choose” which side they were on, Team Harry or Team William. The Tindalls sided with William, although Zara had always been close to both of her cousins for years. In any case, Mike and William’s weird friendship blossomed, in the tabloids at least. It felt like Mike was being tasked to do some of William’s dirty work, and Mike was always good for some performative friendship tasks. Look, Harry, we don’t need you anymore! Well, Mike was once again chatting about his royal relations in a recent podcast and he shared his nickname for William.

Mike Tindall has revealed he calls Prince William ‘One Pint Willy’ because ‘he is not the best of drinkers’. The ex-England rugby star also admits he and his wife Zara call each other ‘munchkin’, while she has her husband saved in her phone as a nickname ending in ‘kitten’. The Tindalls made the revelations in a special podcast with rugby league legend Rob Burrow, who is battling motor neurone disease.

Asked by Burrow if he has any nicknames for any of the royals, Mike says: ‘For the Prince of Wales, he is known as One Pint Willy. He is known to me as One Pint Willy because he is 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. That is one I will give away for the Prince of Wales.’

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Zara can be heard laughing before saying: ‘Oh my god. You are in so much trouble.’

Burrow also quizzed the couple on whether they have any pet names for each other. Mike says: ‘We basically call each other munchkins a lot. I don’t know why that started but it has stuck. I will let Zara decide whether she wants to give away what I am down in her phone as…’

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Zara replies: ‘He is in my phone as something else and it ends with kitten.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I feel like I’m missing something in the American vs. British drinking culture language. Does “One Pint Willy” mean that William will only have one pint when they have a night out, or is the nickname indicative of William’s lightweight drinking status? As in, he only has one pint because that’s all it takes for him to get drunk? Does “not the best of drinkers” mean that he simply doesn’t drink much or that he’s a bad drunk? It’s like he’s speaking in code, especially since we know that William has, historically, enjoyed getting sh-tfaced. Never forget the drunken “dad-dancing” in Verbier in 2017, when William had a lads-only trip on Commonwealth Day.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.