Who is Zara Tindall's best friend Dolly Maude, who helped the royal in labour?

In further proof of the down-to-earth, no-nonsense kind of personality of Zara Tindall (née Phillips), she has Dolly Maude as her best friend - a woman who has spent 13 years working as an NHS nurse, specifically on a maternity unit.

Zara is the granddaughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II and daughter of Princess Anne.

This became particularly useful in Zara's life when she unexpectedly had to give birth to her third child on her bathroom floor. Dolly has been present at all three of Zara's birth and was a huge part of the successful delivery of baby Lucas.

Zara's husband, the former England rugby international Mike Tindall, has spoken of their bond on the podcast 'The Good, the Bad, and the Rugby'.

Speaking to co-hosts James Haskell and Alex Payne about Lucas' birth, Mike said: "Fortunately Zara's friend Dolly 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!"

Who is Dolly Maude?

Dolly is a woman of many talents. As well as holding a qualification in maternity nursing - she has worked for NHS Gloucestershire for 13 years - she is also a keen sportswoman. She rides horses, and has a great love of equestrian interests, which is believed to be how Dolly and Zara met.

While at school, Dolly was a mezzo soprano soloist, and then she went on to study a diploma in food and fashion and Cordon Bleu cookery at Eastbourne College of Food and Fashion, graduating in 1989.

Dolly is a mother of four, who is in her late forties, and lives in the Cotswolds close to Zara and Mike's home on the Gatcombe Park estate. She has long been a close companion of Zara, 41, and was maid of honour at her wedding in 2011.

The pair briefly lived together in 2003, when Dolly offered Zara a place to stay when her relationship with ex-fiance jockey Richard Johnson ended.

As well as the NHS, Dolly also worked on the maternity unit of a hospital in Kambia, Sierra Leone for a month as part of the Kambia Appeal in 2013, teaching staff basic nursing and theatre skills.

Her current role is listed as house parent/nurse for the British Ski Academy, which is based in Valle D'Aosta, Italy - a role she's held since December 2018, if her LinkedIn profile is correct.

She is married to Chris Maude, 52, a former jump jockey turned master valet, who comes from a farming background and grew up in the Hatherleigh area of Devon.

Dolly is no stranger to competing in horse events, including dressage and cross country.

Dolly and Chris married in 1997 and have four children - their eldest son Billy, 23, attended Swansea University, and their eldest daughter Helena, 21, studies at the Central School of Ballet.

Younger son Ted is, like his mother, a keen skier. He was a page boy at Zara and Mike's wedding, then age six, and Zara is his godmother.