Zara Tindall has given birth to a baby boy, her husband Mike Tindall has confirmed - and the Queen and Prince Philip are 'looking forward to meeting him'.
Her Majesty's granddaughter, 39, gave birth to their son Lucas Philip Tindall, weighing 8lbs 4oz, at 6pm on Sunday on the bathroom floor of their family home on Princess Anne's Gloucestershire estate.
Proud father Mike Tindall, 42, who shares daughters Mia, seven, and Lena, two, with his wife, shared the news on his podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby - and hailed Zara a 'warrior'. He later revealed he took the little one straight downstairs to watch sport on TV, after snipping the cord and enjoying skin-on-skin contact.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are 'delighted' at the birth of their 10th great-grandchild, Buckingham Palace said, with a spokesman adding they are 'looking forward to meeting him when circumstances allow'.
The unconventional royal birth announcement via Mike's podcast shows yet again a different approach from the Tindalls, who revealed their third pregnancy in the same manner. In the past, the couple had pregnancies formally announced by Buckingham Palace.
Former England rugby legend Mike told podcast hosts Alex Payne, James Haskell and guest Ellis Genge: 'Sunday got even better because a little baby boy arrived at my house!'
Mike added that they hadn't yet decided on a name at the time the podcast was recorded on Monday, admitting they never pick one before they arrive, but Zara was soon up and about and they took him for a walk that morning. The name was announced on Tuesday by a spokeswoman for the couple.
A spokeswoman for the couple said: 'Zara and Mike Tindall are happy to announce the birth of their third child, Lucas Philip Tindall.' The little boy is the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh's 10th great-grandchild, and 22nd in line to the throne.
Speaking about the birth, Mike told how Zara had experienced contractions the night before, so they organised childcare for Mia and Lena - but the little boy arrived so fast they didn't have time to make it to hospital.
Mike recalled: 'Fortunately Zara's friend Dolly [Maude] is, she's actually more important than I am at making sure she's been at all three of my children's births, she was there and recognised that we wouldn't have got to the hospital in time, so it was run into the gym, get a mat, get into the bathroom, towels down, brace brace brace!
'Fortunately the midwife that was going to meet us at the hospital wasn't that far away so she drove up, got there just as we'd assumed the position, and then the second midwife arrived just after the head had arrived!'
Asked how Zara was doing, he replied: 'As every man will say, she was a warrior, as always. They always are. We can never judge a woman in terms of what they have to go through with childbirth so... no, she was back up, we went for a walk this morning with him, and yeah all good.'
Mike told how the birth was very different to their previous children; he said: 'It's been a slow journey, so first one was in Gloucester Royal, done the right way, we was induced as well that one, and then second one was in Stroud in a local birth clinic, and this one we didn't even make it there.
'I literally was like yep, snip snip, I've got my boy, I'm out, I'm out of here!'
He added: 'The best thing about being at home was, the best thing, as soon as he's wrapped up, you're skin on skin, straight downstairs, TV room, golf on, and I was like, this is what me and you are doing.
'There was actually a ridiculously old rugby game on, it was Bath versus Wigan, I was like, we're gonna stick that on first, '96, I was like right, you can watch a bit of that, and then I went to the final day of the golf.'
Asked how his daughters reacted, Mike admitted they didn't tell them they thought Zara was in labour, but he suspected Mia had sussed.
'Mia's quite on it, she's quite street smart, so she was like, "why are we not going home for tea?" They were going, "they've had to pop out for something..." "where have they had to go?" will you just stop asking questions... and then when she got in she was over the moon, both of them were.
'Problem is Lena is like, "my baby!" And it's like, no Lena, it's not your baby! She tries to pick it up... so yeah.'
The baby's birth comes just a few weeks after Zara's cousin Princess Eugenie had her son August on February 9.
The couple, who suffered two miscarriages after the birth of their eldest daughter in 2014, were the first royals to openly speak about the heart-breaking experience.
In December 2016 the couple revealed that a pregnancy announced the previous month had ended in a miscarriage.
Two years later in an interview with the Sunday Times, Zara, opened up about the devastation of losing the baby and revealed she had suffered a second miscarriage before falling pregnant with daughter Lena, now two.
Zara, 39, and husband Mike, welcomed eldest daughter Mia in 2014.
She revealed in December 2016 that a pregnancy announced the previous month had ended in a miscarriage.
Speaking about her experience to The Sunday Times in 2018, Zara said the hardest part of her first miscarriage was having to tell the world because news of the pregnancy had been made public.
