Zara and Mike Tindall have named their second daughter Lena Elizabeth, with the baby’s middle name thought to be a nod to her great-grandmother, the Queen.
‘The name is Lena Elizabeth. It was just a name they liked,’ a spokesperson for the couple said (if only all media statements were so straightforward…)
The arrival of Lena, who is the second addition to the royal family this year following the birth of Prince Louis of Cambridge back in April, was announced earlier this month in a statement from Buckingham Palace.
She’ll share a middle name with her second cousin, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.
“Mrs Michael Tindall was safely delivered of a baby girl on 18th June, at Stroud Maternity Unit,” a statement released by the royal communications team read, also revealing that Mr Tindall was present at the birth, and that “the weight of the baby was 9lbs 3oz.”
Per the Palace statement, “The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal, Captain Mark Phillips and Mike’s parents, Mr Philip and Mrs Linda Tindall, have been informed and are delighted with the news.” The baby’s name will be confirmed in due course.
The couple, who married in 2011, announced that they were expecting back in January, when a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that The Queen and royal family were ‘very pleased’ by the news.
This news comes after the Tindalls very sadly suffered a miscarriage in December 2016.
Zara, a former Olympic equestrian who is the 16th in line to the throne, and Mike, a former England rugby star, are already parents to Mia Grace, aged four.
Lena will be the fourth grandchild for Princess Anne and the seventh great-grandchild for The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Though Zara is the daughter of Princess Anne, The Queen’s only daughter, her father Captain Mark Phillips declined a royal peerage upon his marriage, and the princess famously refused Her Majesty’s offer to extend the title of Princess to Zara.
As such, the Tindalls and their children do not take royal titles, and Zara has previously spoken of how ‘lucky’ she feels this was.
“I’m very lucky that both my parents decided to not use the title and we grew up and did all the things that gave us the opportunity to do,” she told the Times back in 2015.
Congratulations to the happy couple!
Via our sister site Grazia.
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