Zara Phillips has given her biggest hint yet that she wants to marry the England rugby player Mike Tindall.

The Queen’s granddaughter said that the pair exchanged vows of love every day, adding that she was waiting for Tindall to pop the question.

“I’m old-fashioned. I think they should ask you,” she said. “Everyone at the [Gloucester] rugby club seems to be getting married and having babies so they keep asking me, ‘What about you?’ We tell each other we love each other every day.”

Asked in an interview for GQ Sport magazine if she thought she had sown her wild oats she said: “Yes – I think I have . . . ”

Ahead of her appearance at the Badminton Horse Trials this Thursday, Ms Phillips also said in the interview that she preferred being known as a horse rider rather than as a royal.

When asked if she would have done anything differently in her life if she were not a member of the Royal Family, she replied: “Yes . . . because I could have got away with more things. So it’s probably a good thing I am.”

She also praised her family members, adding that she and her brother Peter had been brought up “quite normally”. She added: “I think it’s better to be known as a horse rider than a royal. They are my family but it’s nice to be known for something else.”

Ms Phillips won individual gold at the World Equestrian Games in Germany in 2006 and, like her mother, the Princess Royal, was BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Last year she was appointed MBE for services to equestrianism.

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