JO and LEAH WOOD on how they’re stronger than ever after an incredibly difficult year
THE MOTHER-AND-DAUGHTER DUO TELL HOW COUNTRY LIFE HAS HELPED THEM HEAL
Smiling
in the summer sunshine, Jo and Leah Wood dip their toes into the wild swimming pond at Jo’s beautiful grade II-listed farmhouse in the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside.
As the mum and daughter chat and gaze contentedly over the tranquil waterlilies they planted together last year, tinkling laughter floats across the wildflower meadows. It’s Leah’s 12- year- old daughter Maggie and seven-year-old son Otis, who love charging around grandma Jo’s huge garden.
“Maggie wants to be a model, just like Granny and her mum were,” beams Jo in this exclusive interview and photoshoot with hello! “She’s a natural when it comes to posing for the camera.”
Suddenly Otis, a bundle of energy, playfully throws up his arms before affectionately wrapping them around his mum.
“He’s the kindest, sweetest little boy ever,” says Leah. “When I look into his big blue eyes, I feel that he’s an old soul who’s been here before.”
MOVING CLOSER TO MUM
This happy family scene has been a regular occurrence since Leah and husband Jack MacDonald, a TV financier, upped sticks from central London last year to live just a stone’s throw from Jo’s eco- farmhouse, embracing her passion for a greener lifestyle along the way.
“It’s great to be near Mum, for us all to sit around the table for meals and go swimming in the pond with the kids,” says Leah, 42. “We have so much space and feel more relaxed than ever before. What’s more, it’s so important for the kids to grow up in the fresh air, surrounded by fields and trees.”
The healing power of country life has never been more relevant for Jo and her family than now. “We’ve just been through the most difficult year
of our lives,” says Jo. “The hardest thing was being strong for everyone else and not falling to pieces. As a family we supported each other. We held hands and said: ‘ Let’s do this. We will get through it and come out on top.’”
The organics aficionada – who starred in Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity MasterChef and has recently relaunched her Jo Wood Organics bath and body range – seemed to lead a charmed life until a series of disasters struck her family at the start of the Covid- 19 pandemic. In April 2020, Otis was diagnosed with a serious illness.
“I never imagined anything like this would happen to us,” says Leah. “When it did, my only thought was to save my son.”
His traumatic health scare came at a time when the family was still reeling from a series of heartwrenching events that hit them in relentless succession.
First, Jo’s younger brother, the world- famous artist Paul
‘The hardest thing was being strong for everyone else’
Jo
Karslake, died at 61 of heart failure after contracting Covid-19, then sister Lize caught the virus, too.
“I was devastated when Paul passed away,” says Jo, 66. “But Lize underwent a tracheotomy and survived, thank goodness.”
Meanwhile, Leah’s father, Rolling Stones icon Ronnie, 74, who had been treated for lung cancer in 2017, was diagnosed in lockdown with small- cell carcinoma, from which he was recently given the all-clear.
EMOTIONAL ENDURANCE
Her voice trembling with emotion, Leah recalls the unbearable stress they endured. “Everything bombed on us at once, and I didn’t think I could take much more. It was a real test of character, a huge learning curve. I learnt a lot about myself and have come out of it a stronger person.”
Mum Jo was her steadfast rock of support throughout, all the while quietly coping with her own feelings of fear.
“I had to be strong for Leah and Maggie,” she recalls. “I said: ‘Come on Leah, you’ve got to get through this and be there for your boy.’ She did and she was great.”
After Otis’s final course of treatment, he made a full recovery and was allowed home last August.
“He went through such a tough time, but is thriving now,” says Leah. “He’s taught us a lot about how precious life is. He’s our little miracle and every time I look at him, I thank God.”
To show her appreciation for the medical staff who looked after Otis on Elephant Ward at London’s Great Ormond
‘It’s great to be near mum, for us all to sit around the table and go swimming with the kids’
‘For me to know she’s down the road. I
couldn’t have wished for anything better’ Jo
Street Hospital, Leah painted a huge elephant and decorated recycled pee-pots, which are also on display.
“I have so much respect for the doctors and nurses, and feel humbled,” she says. “I well up just thinking about everything we went through – and the parents who weren’t as lucky as us.”
HEALING THROUGH NATURE
Last year, Leah and her family swapped their three-bed London flat for a six- bedroom grade II- listed period house in Jo’s village.
“I never wanted to live in the countryside, but after everything that happened I changed my mind,” she says. “We went through an awful year and it was just what we needed.”
“As we walked in and saw this beautiful family home, she went quiet, then said: ‘I love it, Mum’,” says Jo. “I started to get emotional, too. For me to know she’s just down the road, I couldn’t have wished for anything better.”
“Mum always beeps as she drives past,” smiles Leah, adding: “We have two dogs, three chickens and a peacock, and at last I have my own art studio.
“I used to feel claustrophobic working in our old kitchen with paints on the floor and canvases against the wall. But I transformed the tool shed at our new place into a studio; it’s my little sanctuary.”
Jo, likewise, has experienced firsthand the benefits of the country.
When she first moved in, in November 2019, the mum of four and grandmother of ten was living her organic, off-grid dream.
Jo, an a mbassador for conservation charities Project Zero and Cool Earth, installed solar panels and a generator,
‘I’m passionate about an
organic lifestyle’ Jo
planted her own fruit and veg, built her wild pond and set up an office for creating her Jo Wood Organics products.
The autumn landscape back then was an empty earth-brown canvas with grey skies. Now, at the height of summer, the seeds planted with Leah and son Tyrone, 37, are in full bloom. The pond is surrounded by shoulder- high cornflowers, poppies and daisies, and scented rambling roses climb the farmhouse wall. It’s a reflection of their happiness after the adversity they have overcome.
‘The life I lived
before and now are like two different lives’
Jo
LIFE LESSONS
“Moving here makes you reevaluate your life,” says Jo. “At first I thought: ‘Why would I put myself in the middle of nowhere, not knowing anyone?’ But I have a community of lovely friends and am very happy.
“Leah’s nearby and Tyrone visits all the time – renovating the barn so that we can hold charity dinners using vegetables from the garden,” continues Jo, who plans to revive her pop- up restaurant, Mrs Paisley’s Lashings.
“I can go for a dip whenever I like in what I call my dinosaur water – the ancient water source in my wild pond. It’s bliss.”
It’s also the perfect backdrop to relaunch her Jo Wood Organics range, which she founded in 2005. Her products, such as fragrant candles, body oil and eau de toilette, contain natural, parabenfree ingredients, including Iranian rose otto, Egyptian jasmine, bergamot, rosemary, sage and pine needle, and come in glamorous, recyclable packaging. As an exotic touch, their names are inspired by Jo’s love of Africa, such as Usiku, which means calm, and Amka, which means uplifting in Swahili.
“I’m passionate about an organic lifestyle,” she says. “The life I lived before and now are like two different lives. I grew up in the country, then lived in London, and have come full circle.
“Something pulled me back,” she continues, adding with a smile: “I think the angels were guiding me. I love it here; the sound of the birds, the breeze in the trees, and the silence.”