Princess Anne's hilarious response to Mike Tindall's outrageous underwear moment has made us love her even more

Princess Anne once had the most hilarious response to catching a glimpse of her son-in-law Mike Tindall's rather outrageous underwear. 

Mike Tindall is many things - the husband of Zara Tindall, Princess Anne's daughter, a former rugby player, a devoted family man... and an awful dancer. In fact, one time his dancing proved so awful that he ripped his pants - right in front of Princess Anne. 

Although not an official working royal, Mike and Zara still have to uphold the standards of the family, so you can imagine Princess Anne's reaction when this rather unruly scene occurred at Zara's 30th birthday party over 12 years ago. 

Speaking during his time on I'm A Celebrity, he recounted the whole story - and it's made us love Princess Anne even more. 

On the show, he explained how the awkward event unfolded, saying, "I had like flares on, full outfit but it was quite tight, nothing ever fits - rugby player’s bum and legs! - so I was dancing with my mother-in-law and I did a 'slut drop' in front of my mother-in-law."

Then, the unthinkable happened. "Ripped my trousers, straight in front of her," he said, "It happened to be that my boxers that I had on at that time said 'nibble my nuts.'"

In true Princess Anne fashion, she had a rather quick and witty reaction upon reading the plea of his underwear.

"As I’ve turned round, she’s gone, 'I’d rather not,'" Mike recalled, laughing. 

Seeing as Princess Anne has been dubbed multiple times as the "royal rebel" and Zara has had her fair share of raucous moments (never forget her tongue piercing!), she probably wasn't altogether shocked. 

Apparently, having experienced a handful of wardrobe mishaps in the past, Mike has become accustomed to carrying around extra pairs of trousers wherever he goes - just in case. As he said, you can't predict what will happen to your pants when you have the muscular thighs and bum of a former professional rugby player.

As for the raunchy saying on the underwear... we can imagine they probably never saw the light of day again. 

Even after that hilarious encounter, Zara and Mike are still happily married, and have three children, Mia, nine, Lena, five, and Lucas, two. In fact, their first date ended up being a rather memorable one, just like Zara's 30th birthday - except, of course, there was no pants-splitting involved (that we're aware of). 

"First actual date, just went out for lunch locally. And ended up being quite a boozy one. Then we figured out that we both quite like getting smashed. It was a good start," he recalled of their first-ever date together.