Palace announces Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall are expecting a baby

Buckingham Palace has announced that Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall are expecting a baby in the New Year.

The baby will be the first child of the couple who married in 2011.

Zara Phillips, 32, is the daughter and youngest child of Anne, Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips who divorced in 1992. She won the Eventing World Championship in Aachen in 2006. Later that year she was voted 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year following in the footsteps of her mother who won it in 1971. She won a Silver Medal at the London 2012 Olympics as a member of the Great Britain Eventing Team.

She is a graduate of Exeter University.

34-year-old Mike Tindall is an English rugby union international and plays centre for Gloucester.

The statement released by Buckingham Palace on Monday 8 July reads:

"Mr and Mrs Mike Tindall are very pleased to announce that Zara Tindall is expecting a baby in the New Year.

"The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips, Mr Phillip and Mrs Linda Tindall, and members of both families are delighted with the news.

"This baby will be the first child for Mike and Zara and the third grandchild for The Princess Royal."