Why women need to focus on themselves for a change! Countryfile star anita rani explains why she’s found her groove at 41

Countryfile presenter Anita Rani talks to Robyn Morris about the secret to a happy marriage, saying what she really thinks and climbing Kilimanjaro…

With her sunny smile and boundless energy, Anita Rani epitomises summer magic during our photo shoot.

The 41-year-old presenter’s zest for life is infectious and she has the whole w&h team swooning over her while she twirls and jumps for the camera (which also loves her) in a floaty dress.

She is clearly a confident and natural performer, so it comes as no surprise when we sit down to chat with Anita that she reveals her life is all about dreams.

“I want to be Beyoncé! I don’t think I’ve lost that nine-year-old in me

who just wants to be on that stage.

It’s really important to have dreams, it doesn’t matter how silly they are, they’re yours.”

This year, Anita has already achieved one big dream of hers – climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania for Comic Relief, something she describes as an “amazing” experience.

“My life is spent at a certain level of nerves,” she explains. “Even doing this photo shoot is on some level terrifying.”

But we’d never know she feels nervous. As Anita chats to us about plans for her next big adventure, it’s clear to see this is a woman who knows exactly what she wants!

I always thought I’d become a documentary director, but I started working at my local radio station when I was 14, so I guess presenting was always going to be what I ended up doing.

I never sat still as a kid – as well as working at the radio station, I was going to drama classes. I’d also get my parents to drop me off to watch theatre productions on my own, which is pretty weird if you think about it now, but it felt normal at the time. I remember playing Mary in the Nativity at nursery, I was probably the most similar to actual Mary there. Maybe that’s what made me want to get into the spotlight!

I never had a plan B. I don’t even know if there’s a plan.

Ideally, I would have loved to have done drama, but my parents just didn’t understand why I would go and study that. If you don’t see many brown faces and acting roles on TV – and there certainly weren’t any then

– it was, “Where’s your career going to be?” Although going off and doing broadcasting was taking a risk as well.

I still love Countryfile as much as I did when I started four years ago.

It’s brilliant because you get to travel the country, be in beautiful places and speak to amazing people who are doing interesting things with their life, out of the rat race. It’s a nice way of being out of the city and having a couple of days where you’re just at one with nature.

My highlight has been Countryfile Live.

You get to hang out with the other >>

“My outlook on life has changed since turning 40 – I’ve found my groove”

presenters, who you don’t see otherwise. It’s like a big old mini break for the show. This year we’re off to Yorkshire, so I’m bringing it home!

I’ve lived in London since 2001 and I’d never move back to Yorkshire.

I’m deeply proud of being from there, I’m Yorkshire till I die and I’m culturally northern, but I’m also a woman who lives in a cosmopolitan city that is one of the best cities on earth. I love London and my life is here. Plus I’ve married a southerner – they never leave! People think there’s this north/south divide, but you can get there in three hours. I’m also not very sentimentally attached to places. If, in the next 10 years, I’m somewhere else, then that’s where my life will be.

Climbing Kilimanjaro was amazing. I can’t believe I’ve ticked that off my bucket list, and to do it with Comic Relief as well.

The women were incredible – Shirley Ballas, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall from Little Mix, I now consider as friends. Anyone can do it, you just need to take your time and be prepared for the altitude sickness, but you can take stuff for that. I didn’t want to take anything, but as soon as I got there I was, “Give me all the drugs!”

I was the last person to find out I was doing the climb – I found out 10 days before!

I was on a beach in the Maldives drinking a piña colada and I got the email and said to my husband, “What shall I do? Shall I put down the drink?” I finished the drink. You don’t have to be mega fit, but I kind of relied on my residual fitness. They say your core is the main thing you need to work on. With that much walking and carrying your backpack, your core is everything.

I’m quite an active person, I’m a bit of a fidget – I like to do everything and anything.

I’ll throw on my trainers and some scruffy old leggings, and go for a run. I don’t time myself or measure the distance, I just put some music on and go. I think everyone needs to do something to be active, you don’t have to spend a fortune on a gym membership or get a personal trainer. I just go for a run and then do a few squats in the park.

I definitely want to do another physical challenge.

I’m quite an adventurous person and since I was a kid I’ve always been outdoorsy; even my holidays are adventurous and off the beaten track. It would be nice to go off and do something on my own – there are loads of places I want to visit around the world, such as Bhutan. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point where there isn’t something new that I want to do. In TV terms, having my own series would be great.

I’ve never dieted in my life because I think it’s the worst cycle of hell that you could put yourself through, but I love food.

I like to eat well, but if I want a plate of chips or a bag of crisps, then I’ll have them. I just don’t eat them every day. I cook a lot, so I know what I’m eating. I cook hearty meals, I’m definitely a carb lover. A salad for dinner just doesn’t seem right – it’s like I haven’t eaten. I make lots of pasta, noodle stir-fries and Indian food because that’s the food I grew up on. I love cooking, it’s alchemy – although it always tastes nicer when my husband Bhupi cooks! Balancing home and work life is something you have to make time and space for. I try not to work weekends, although for the past six months, I’ve been doing a lot of weekends. But when I’m at home, that’s where I want to be, with my husband and our friends. I spend a lot of time apart from Bhupi when I’m filming, but we’re used to it now. I think he enjoys not having me around too! After a while he’ll say, “When is your next work trip?”

I don’t know if anyone knows the secret to a happy relationship.

I think it’s really important to know what makes you happy. Women need to focus on themselves – we do so much for everybody else, but you’ve got to keep a bit back for yourself. You can’t lose who you are. Nobody wants to be with someone who is clinging on to them to make them happy, that’s a lot of pressure.

My outlook on life has changed since turning 40, I’ve found my groove.

I feel now that I’m much more confident in saying what I want to say. My advice to my younger self would be to stop worrying about what everybody else wants, be more confident and not hold back – be a bit more ballsy.

I love skincare and beauty, it’s something that has been instilled in me as a kid from my mother.

I like natural products and use a lot of what is in my fridge. Yogurt is really good for your skin, so is cucumber and papaya – if I’ve just eaten a papaya I’ll scrape out the last bits and stick them on my face. My husband is always, “What are you doing?”

Relax – what does that mean?

Being at home and pottering around my house is really nice. That’s me time and that’s really important. There’s also nothing nicer than waking up on a Sunday morning, going for a little run, coming back, reading the paper and making breakfast. Time is the most precious thing that I don’t have enough of. Anita Rani regularly presents on Countryfile on BBC One. w&h