Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Zara has third child at home

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Zara Tindall and her husband, the former rugby player, Mike Tindall, are celebrating the birth of their third child, who was born at home on the bathroom floor after the couple were unable to get to a hospital in time.

Lucas Philip Tindall was born Sunday, weighing in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces, a representative for the couple said Wednesday. His middle name is in honour of both Mike Tindall’s father as well as Zara’s grandfather, Prince Philip. He is 22nd in line to the throne, but won’t take the His Royal Highness title.

Tindall, 42, revealed that the speed of the arrival of the latest royal baby — he is the queen’s and Philip’s 10th great-grandchild — caught the couple off guard and that he had to rush to get a mat for his 39-year-old wife, who like her mother, Princess Anne, enjoyed a successful equestrian career.

“So yeah, it was running to the gym, get a mat, get into the bathroom, get the mat on the floor, towels down, brace, brace, brace,” he said on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast.

The newest addition to the Tindall family is a younger brother to 7-year-old Mia and 2-year-old Lena, who weren’t at home at the time of the birth.

Tindall said his wife’s friend Dolly, who was also at the previous two births, was present.

“She was there and recognized that we wouldn’t have got to hospital in time,” he said. “Fortunately the midwife who was going to meet us at the hospital wasn’t that far away so she drove up just as we had assumed the posit (position) and the second midwife arrived just after the head had arrived.”

Tindall joked that now may be the right time for him to have a vasectomy.

“I literally was like ‘Yep, snip, snip, snip.’ I’ve got a boy. I’m out. I’m out of here,” he said. “The best thing about being at home, the best thing was, as soon he’s wrapped up, he’s skin on skin, straight downstairs. TV room. Golf on. This is what we’re doing.”

Pan Pylas, The Associated Press