Countdown star Rachel Riley says romance with husband Pasha Kovalev is 'on hold' for the timebeing. The former BBC Strictly Come Dancing contestant made the admission in an interview with The Mirror, in which she said parenting their two young children was the priority.
The star said having two children under four made it difficult to focus on romance. But she vowed she and Pasha – who got together after being partnered on Strictly in 2013 and married in 2019 – will get right back to it once she stops breastfeeding their youngest daughter Noa, 18 months.
Rachel said: “All the romance and dates… we just kind of put a pin in it. “We’re both quite patient and we know that once Noa is off the boob, we’ll get there again.”
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But as well as the passion, Rachel is also itching to get back to the partying and is planning a big bash for her 40th.
She said: “I’m looking forward to celebrating one of my friends turning 40 at the end of the year. She’s the one stepping into the unknown but with all my school friends, in a few years it will be 40, 40, 40… I’m looking forward to the parties. We were all saving up ahead of our 30ths to go to Vegas. Everyone put it in their diaries – then everyone got pregnant, so we couldn’t go.
“But by 40, the kids are going to be a bit bigger. Maybe we can all get a house together, chuck the kids in the middle and leave the boys to look after them. But I’m not thinking about 40 in terms of, ‘Oh, that’s a big number’. I’m just thinking of how we’re going to party.”
But it’s not just passion and parties Rachel is looking forward to once the children grow. Sharing snaps of a 2017 holiday to the Galapagos Islands, she said: “Before kids, we’d book off three weeks and go somewhere amazing and away from it all. Galapagos was one of those trips, it was just out of this world.”
Rachel and Pasha, 43, welcomed first daughter Maven in 2019, followed by Noa in 2021. They became a household of eight last year after welcoming a Ukrainian family into their home and Rachel insists they will not be adding to their brood.
She said: “We’re done in terms of kids. You can fit four in a hotel room or a car. So now when the girls grow out of clothes, they go to the charity shop. I’m not keeping them just in case."
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