‘We’ve had lots of family time together’
Countdown’s Rachel Riley reveals husband Pasha Kovalev is a hands-on dad to their daughter Maven and says they have happy times ahead
Just a month after speaking about wanting to add to her brood, Rachel Riley has announced she’s expecting her second child with husband Pasha Kovalev.
Rachel, who is already mum to 16-month-old daughter Maven, shared the news on Instagram alongside a snap of herself holding her tummy. She wrote,“Happy, happy days for our little family @pashakovalev and future big sister Mave.”
The Countdown star met Pasha during her 2013 stint on Strictly Come Dancing and, while she didn’t bag the Glitterball trophy, the pair did go on to start a family together and tie the knot in a 2019 Las Vegas ceremony.
Their daughter Maven has been keeping them on their toes during lockdown. And although the last year has been challenging for everyone, Rachel, 35, has found the silver lining in being able to spend more time with her family.
Here, she chats lockdown life with Pasha, 41, and tells us what kind of parents they are...
Hi Rachel! How have you found the last year of lockdowns?
We’ve had loads of family time together that we would never have been able to have otherwise, as Pasha would have been away on tour. Instead, he’s been completely hands-on looking after Maven when I’m working, so that’s been brilliant. And then, obviously, in other ways, it’s been really hard not seeing friends and family. I say all this with the privilege that we’ve not been ill and we’ve been lucky enough that I’m still working.
Has it been hard with such a young child?
There are things we would have done, like baby clubs and seeing other toddlers, that Maven’s missed out on. She’s just not socialised at all with other children. They’re supposed to be malleable and she won’t remember any of this, so hopefully she’ll just sail through when she finally does get into an environment with other kids. I think there’s a whole generation of babies who aren’t used to going in the car. She used to just cry when we put her anywhere near the car because she wasn’t used to it.
What are you and Pasha like as parents?
We’re quite chilled. I think we’re lucky in that we’ve had all this time together. And we’re a bit older than a lot of people would have been when they’re first-time parents. We’ve done everything we wanted to do and we were ready to have a child. It’s really, really equal. Apart from breastfeeding, Pasha and I share everything and he’s wonderful.
Do you still speak to Maven in Russian?
Pasha only speaks to her in Russian, unless we’re all together. His mum and a lot of his family don’t speak English, so he wants her to be able to speak to her family. It’s the only time when she’ll be able to learn Russian without an accent. She understands in both languages. If you ask her to roar like a lion in English or Russian, she’ll do it – she doesn’t bat an eyelid! She can’t say much yet, but she definitely understands everything.
Who does she take after?
I think we’re starting to see a bit of a strong will from her, which I’d put in both of our camps. She’s really chilled and easygoing most of the time, like Pasha. She’s really happy. You see all the good things of your other half in them, but I think there are bits of both of us. But she loves dancing!
Would you ever do an advice show for mums?
Yeah. It’s something you can only relate to once you’ve done it and most of my friends are now in a similar position with little ones. It’s invaluable having that group of friends to say things like,“Why has my child suddenly stopped sleeping? Why is he suddenly doing this?” The support of other mums is just something really unique and invaluable.
What parenting challenges have you faced in lockdown?
If we’re trying to do a bit of filming and we’ve got a baby who is crying in the room next door and knows that you’re home and wants milk, it can be tough.
How would you say motherhood has changed you?
It makes you live in the moment a lot more. When you’re doing something that totally occupies your mind and you’re not thinking about anything else, that’s really quite mentally liberating. We’re not thinking about what we’re going to do in a week’s time. It’s more like, when are we going to go for a walk this afternoon? It forces you to be more in the moment more.
What are you most looking forward to after lockdown?
Seeing friends and family. My mum will be in the car as soon as she gets word she can come. We saw her for Maven’s birthday, the 15th of December, and then everything shut on the 16th of December. So much has changed since then, so she’s a completely different character.
Sam Thompson and Pete Wicks pretended to be you on The Celebrity Circle For Stand Up To Cancer. How did you feel about it?
I didn’t know anything about it! But it was for such a good cause. It was interesting to see two blokes’ co-impression of me!
Did they not approach you beforehand then?
Channel 4 asked if they could, because they needed photos to be able to catfish me, but that’s all I knew.
Who would you play if you went on the show or would you be yourself?
I’m not very good at lying. I’m terrible actually. It’s probably easier with something like that to play a character because you have to try to manipulate and be a bit sneaky, don’t you? I don’t know, maybe Rio Ferdinand?
You’re working with Always on a new campaign to get women more involved in sport. Did you play a lot of sport when you were younger?
When I was young, I played football, netball, hockey, athletics and rounders. Then, when I was 16 and doing GCSEs and A levels at an all girls school, there wasn’t any sport offered. After that I was really lucky to go to somewhere like Oxford, where you didn’t have to be the best and didn’t have to be able to get into the university teams. Every college had its sports team, so if you wanted to play something, you could. I got so much out of it. That’s why I really like this campaign to encourage girls into sport and give some money to an organisation
that supports that.
‘Pasha is teaching Maven Russian so she can speak to his family’
Will you encourage Maven to be involved in sport?
I want to get her involved in whatever she wants to do. But at the moment, I’m just guessing what she wants to do! But she’s really active and was walking before she was 11 months. Now she just runs everywhere. She’s such a daredevil. She loves going out on her scooter and being thrown around, and she loves dancing. There are no negatives to being sporty really.
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