Zara Tindall praised by husband Mike for her incredible support during heartbreaking circumstance

Zara Tindall has been praised by her husband Mike for her "brilliant" support during his father's Parkinson's battle.

•  Former England rugby player Mike Tindall told BBC Breakfast's Sally Nugent about how wife Zara helps to support him through his father's Parkinson's battle.
• Mike spoke on the show about his father Philip's diagnosis of Parkinson's in 2003 and how the Queen's granddaughter "keeps him on his toes" when it comes to coping.
• This royal news comes after Sophie, Countess of Wessex revealed how Prince Philip's death left a “giant-sized hole” in the Royal Family. 

Mike has been a patron of the Cure Parkinson's charity since 2018 and regularly participates in fundraising events and challenges to raise money for the cause close to his heart.  

Speaking in an emotional BBC interview, Mike revealed that Zara has been "brilliant" when it comes to helping him deal with his father's diagnosis.

"She's been brilliant. She sort of gets it and she sort of keeps me on my toes as well a little bit with it, and where we are in terms of finding out more about new drugs that are coming out and new trials and everything else," he said.

Mike added that his father used to be an athlete who excelled in all sports and played rugby, but that he now "suddenly struggles to pick up a pen".

Opening up on how his dad's Parkinson's has gotten worse over the years, Mike, who shares Mia, Lena and Lucas with Zara, added, "And then you know, life went on. You know, I was 25. Rugby was going really well, you were sort of focused on that. 

"And then when we got married in 2011, somewhere around there, things were starting to - you could see the effects grow on him, in terms of he's a much smaller man than he ever was at the moment.

"Curvature of the spine, he had to have surgery on that. Slowly from that sort of point, over the last ten years, there's been loads of other problems that have come across because of it." 

Mike visited his parents in Yorkshire for the first time this year during the segment on BBC Breakfast, after not seeing them in six months due to lockdown restrictions.

Mike explained, "Even if there was a cure tomorrow, it's not going to change my dad's life.

"So that's one of the reasons why I try to do what I do now, because men are men. They do take a long time to go see a doctor, they don't like talking about things, but what you ultimately don't want is for, you never want a young son or a young daughter to go through having to watch their idol - he was my sporting idol, who I wanted to be - go from where he wants to be to where he is now."