Zara Tindall holds onto her hat as she leads racegoers braving blustery and moist climate at Cheltenham amid Storm Claudia amber climate warning
Zara Tindall was forced to hold onto her hat today as she braved blustery and wet conditions at Cheltenham Racecourse.
Princess Anne‘s daughter, 44, attended ‘Countryside Day’ on Friday morning to kick off the meet’s three-day ‘November Meeting’, celebrating ‘the very best of rural life and top-class sport’.
Despite the inclement weather from Storm Claudia, Zara, an Olympic and World Champion equestrian, turned out to show her support for the horse-racing event, though she was visibly strained as she fought the wind and rain.
The royal mother-of-three, who is married to former rugby union player Mike Tindall, 47, held onto a plum-coloured fedora to prevent it from blowing away. Dressed in a roll-neck jumper in the same shade of purple and a tweed coat with a belted waist, she completed her outfit with a pair of pearl earrings.
Zara won a silver medal in eventing at the 2012 London Olympics and is frequently seen at horse-racing meets.
Heavy winds and persistent rain have continued throughout the afternoon, as conditions at the track were inevitably worsened by a day’s racing on the Prestbury Park turf.
Glamorous racegoers were seen with their umbrellas turned inside out and battling the winds – though the style stakes were as high as ever.
The storm has brought travel chaos to Britain today, as the country was hit by a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours and two 12-hour ‘danger to life’ amber warnings were imposed for parts of central England and south Wales.
Zara Tindall (pictured) looked flustered as she held on to her hat at Cheltenham Racecourse today
Just last month, Zara was pictured at Cheltenham with her 11-year-old daughter Mia.
Zara and her eldest child made a rare public appearance together for the first event of the racing season at the Gloucestershire track.
She and Mike tend to keep their three children out of the spotlight to protect their privacy.
However, her recent outings have been overshadowed by the latest allegations against her uncle, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
It was revealed this week that Zara’s husband Mike Tindall is constantly tormented by his podcast co-host James Haskell over Andrew.
Speaking with The Times, James, who co-hosts The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast with Mike, insisted it was ‘never the wrong moment’ to joke about the disgraced former prince.
Mike simply responded: ‘No comment’.
Newly released documents on Wednesday kept the focus on Andrew, with an email from Jeffrey Epstein appearing to confirm the veracity of a photograph of the former prince with his accuser Virginia Giuffre.
Despite the inclement weather, equestrian Zara turned out to show her support for Cheltenham’s ‘November Meeting’
Despite the wet weather, racegoers at Cheltenham today were as stylish as ever
The storm has brought travel chaos to Britain today, as the country was hit by a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours
Racegoers were seen braving rainy conditions and carrying umbrellas to keep off the rain
One pair of friends unfortunately saw their umbrella being turned inside out
Racegoers in rainy conditions during Countryside Day at Cheltenham Racecourse
Andrew also told the paedophile financier Epstein and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell ‘I can’t take any more of this’ as he pleaded with them to make it clear he was not involved in any allegations against them.
Thousands of documents from Epstein’s estate were published by the US House Oversight Committee on Wednesday – including the exchange from March 2011 – months on from when Andrew alleged he broke off all contact with the sex offender.
Andrew’s links to Epstein eventually led to the King dramatically stripping him of his titles – putting an end to his public life.
The move followed the publication of Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs, and the US government’s release of documents from the paedophile’s estate.
Ms Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew at Maxwell’s home in London, once at Epstein’s address in Manhattan, and once on Little St James.
Heavy winds and persistent rain have continued throughout the afternoon, as conditions at the track were inevitably worsened
The incident at Maxwell’s home, where the now infamous photo of the former duke with his accuser is reported to have been taken, allegedly occurred when Ms Giuffre was 17 years old.
Andrew is accused of taking part in an orgy with ‘underage’ girls, as well as Ms Giuffre, during the alleged incident on Little St James. The former prince vehemently denies all allegations made against him.
Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 after being convicted of sex trafficking.
