Exclusive
STRICTLY SPEAKING
Countdown’s Rachel Riley opens up about marriage struggle with Pasha – saying they can be ‘ships that pass in the night’
COUNTDOWN star Rachel Riley has opened up about her marriage to ex-Strictly star Pasha Kovalev - saying they are currently "ships that past in the night" with their busy work schedule.
The Channel 4 star, 37, who shares two-year-old daughter Maven, and one-year-old Noa with Pasha, said it's often a challenge to squeeze in alone time with her hubby.
6
6
Rachel said date nights are rare but admitted she wouldn't change a thing, saying she enjoys this phase of parenthood.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Rachel said: "I guess it's family time as much as anything at the moment. We have a rare date night because he's going to be away for quite a long time.
"But when you first get together, if they're away for three months and you've only been together a month, it's a big deal.
"But when you've been together the best part of a decade and you can see a future of how ever many more decades that you get together, it kind of changes your perspective.
READ MORE ON RACHEL RILEY
"When you have kids as well, on a day to day basis, I'm just like 'what am I doing this afternoon', it's the summer holidays and I've got to keep them busy and we will see him here and everywhere when he's around.
"We're ready to go and see friends that we've not seen in a while and we accidentally arranged to go to Brighton the same weekend that he's doing his show in Brighton, that's quite nice.
"I need to be more organised to see what days he off - I'm juggling so many things."
Rachel - who has teamed up with Weetabix to encourage more young girls into football - said it's important to make time for romance and to keep the spark alive.
Most read in News TV
"It's nice to have date nights especially as we can be ships that pass in the night, especially when you have kids as well," the mathematician continued.
"He was choreographing a film in Romania recently for five weeks and he got back and straight into rehearsals.
"It's been busy, it's been different, but everything is always in flux. It would be nice, once I'm not feeding the baby and picking her up, maybe we could even have a night together but that feels like a million miles away at the moment."
The TV favourite said she is prioritising family life right now and is enjoying the precious moments with her girls.
"You can't just go out in the evening when you want to, you have to do bath and bedtime," she laughed.
"Before kids you could go out and have couple's night.
"We know it's temporary because they get bigger and you can get babysitters more easily and you're not breastfeeding and they can go to sleep with out you and less reliant.
"We're enjoying this phase of having little ones but then we know it's not going to be forever.
"When the kids get old and move out, you've still got each other and we value that and we look forward to that when we can get back to that but also we don't feel time constrained."
Rachel admitted that motherhood has been full of highs and lows, especially when Pasha is away for weeks.
She told us: "We take each step as it comes, we were lucky that we had Pasha's mum came for the first baby and she got stuck due to the pandemic and then came for the second baby and got stuck because the war broke out.
"The biggest challenge is the relentless of it - when Pasha was in Romania it was just me trying to put two kids to bed at the same time for five weeks.
"You have that mum rage 'I'm not an octopus', I can't do seven things at once.
"I think if the house is messy, you tidy it up in the evenings. I'm just learning to not see the mess because you can't do everything and if the kids are happy, healthy and clean then the rest you can get done at some stage."
The mum-of-two said she has learnt to juggle her busy TV career, family life and her marriage, among various other projects.
"You just adapt, you have you stresses, the house is a mess and you need to go shopping and one kid is drawing on the walls. But it's all temporary and it all changes all the time," she continued.
"The little one is 20 months now, when she hit 18 months it go a lot easier because they can play.
"When Pascha went to Romania for a week I just took them on holiday be myself, because I thought at least that would save the cooking and the cleaning.
"I was dreading going to the airport by myself, going on a plane by myself, they were really good and we went to a family friendly place."
Rachel has teamed up with Weetabix – the nation’s favourite cereal brand who are an official partner of the Football Associations.
On Saturday 22nd July (this weekend) the Lionesses will kick off their first World Cup match against Haiti.
To celebrate, Weetabix will be taking over BOXPARK Wembley (rebranding it at ) to create a family-friendly football extravaganza like no other.
Rachel will be on site to help attempt something very special – they are going to set a NEW world record that will unite football fans.
As a nation we love goal celebrations. Whether its iconic moves like Peter Crouch’s robot or Chloe Kelly pulling her top over her head – we all cheer with joy when our favourite footballer busts a groove as they mark a brilliant goal!
We also love to replicate these moves ourselves – helping us to feel a part of the action.
Rachel shared an empowering message about why she wants more young girls to get into football, including her daughters.
She spoke about her own experiences growing up and said: "I used to play football as a kid, I'm a massive Man Utd fan but there was no women's team but now it's amazing to see women's football coming into the mainstream.
"When I played there was no girls team at school, I had to go out and find one. When I was at university I picked it up again and made loads of friends and we won a cup, I just loved it.
"There wasn't the same feeling about women's football when I was young - my girls have witnessed the Lionesses win the Euros, we can tell them about that when they're older.
"It's a lot more mainstream and seen as a worthy sport. It's not just for little girls, one of the great things, is once they've got their team and that tribalism they can switch it over to the women."
"Rachel continued: "Big national tournaments like this brings people together and if our Lionesses girls are brilliant then it doesn't help.
"Football for women is being more normal, it's on TV, it's on the regular round-up and America their version of soccer is for girls and boys, there is no distinction."
Rachel said she wants to encourage her kids to try as many sports and hobbies as possible at this age.
She said: "I took Maven to a football group and they do dancing, and so far they've played a bit of football.
"They're happy to run around after the ball in the park. Maven has started to request dancing videos on kids YouTube and always wants to be counting.
"They can do both, it's good to expose them and be positive about everything and let them find their own feet."
To check out Rachel Riley and Weetabix breaking the record for the biggest football goal celebration dance head to this .
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Readers can also head down to WeetaBOXPARK on Saturday 28th to watch the England vs Denmark match, all while enjoying a free Weetabix brekkie.
We’ll save you a spot…and a spoon! Tickets are FREE and can be found .
6
6
6
6
Topics