Amanda Owen – aka the Yorkshire Shepherdess – starred in popular TV show Our Yorkshire Farm along with ex-husband Clive and their children

Will the warmth of Christmas manage to cut through the chill this year at Ravenseat Farm — the isolated Yorkshire Dales outpost where Amanda Owen, better known to millions as the Yorkshire Shepherdess, will once again share the festive season with her estranged husband Clive and their nine children?

Amanda and Clive still co-parent and work the farm together, although they no longer share the same home, with Amanda living in their nearby cottage

Despite announcing their separation in 2022 after 22 years of marriage, Amanda, 51, and Clive, 70, remain bound together by family, farming — and television. The former Our Yorkshire Farm stars are currently filming a new series, Our Farm Next Door, while continuing to co-parent and run the remote hill farm side by side.

They no longer live under the same roof. Amanda has moved into a nearby cottage, while Clive remains at Ravenseat. Their children — aged between nine and 22, with only eldest daughter Raven, 24, having fully flown the nest — move freely between both homes.

Amanda Owen with seven of her nine children – who shuttle between their parents’ houses as they please

From the outside, it appears a calm, workable balance has been struck. But in a candid new interview, Amanda reveals that behind the scenes, the years following the breakup pushed her to the brink — triggering a severe eating disorder she has only now begun to overcome.

“I just shut down”

Speaking openly for the first time, Amanda describes the period after the marriage ended as “cataclysmic”. The emotional collapse was compounded by a brief new relationship with web designer Rob Davies, 72, which unravelled under intense public scrutiny.

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The whole family, from left, Raven, Clemmy, Reuben, Edith, Sidney, Amanda, Annas, Violet, Miles, Nancy and Clive

“I just shut down,” she admits. “Physical and mental health are intertwined, and anxiety, depression, paranoia, agoraphobia and an eating disorder were all smooshed into one.”

Her rapid weight loss soon became fodder for online trolls. “I was called a ‘bag of bones’,” she says quietly. “I still get trolled. Edith [her 17-year-old daughter] deletes a lot of it.”

Some days, the pressure became unbearable. “I remember sitting in the sheep pens in the dark, just hiding. It’s the price you pay for living your life in the open. It’s like having a post-mortem before you’re dead.”

Fear for her life

The situation grew so serious that Clive admits there were nights he feared Amanda might not survive.

“I had a swallowing issue,” Amanda recalls. “One Valentine’s night I went outside and suddenly I was throwing up blood. It was terrifying.”

She describes collapsing while out gathering sheep, needing to be rescued by family members. Hospital visits became frequent. “It was a critical time,” she says. “We were also renovating Anty John’s, the house featured in Our Farm Next Door. Everything collided.”

Clive remembers it as “the scariest time”, confessing he sometimes feared he wouldn’t see her the next morning.

Finding calm after separation

Today, however, the atmosphere between the former couple is unexpectedly light. They tease, bicker and laugh like a seasoned double act — a dynamic that helped make their unscripted TV success so compelling.

“There isn’t the tension now,” Amanda explains. “Having space has actually been a blessing. Before, we lived together, worked together, raised the kids together — everything overlapped.”

Clive agrees. “I think we get on better now,” he says, adding that the separation has made him calmer and even taught him to cook.

The pair still share daily routines, family meals and farm duties. “It wouldn’t work if we did child handovers at McDonald’s,” Amanda jokes.

Nine children, one priority

Their children remain the heart of everything. In descending order: Raven, 24; Reuben, 22; Miles, 19; Edith, 17; Violet, 15; Sidney, 14; Annas, 12; Clemmy, 10; and nine-year-old Nancy.

Reuben now runs his own machinery business and stars in a spin-off show, Reuben Owen: Life in the Dales. Raven lives in Newcastle, working in a highly specialised scientific field. The younger children help on the farm, juggle school and jobs, and — despite their unconventional upbringing — are widely praised for their resilience and independence.

Dating, but separately

Clive confirms he is now dating. “Yes, I’m seeing someone. That’s very nice,” he says, while Amanda smiles wryly. “He’s had three lady friends. He’s a popular man.”

Amanda, by contrast, says she is in no rush. “I’m quite ambivalent about men,” she admits. “Not never — but not now.”

A fragile recovery — and hope

Amanda speaks with clarity about her eating disorder, acknowledging it had long lingered beneath the surface but intensified under stress and scrutiny.

“The media intrusion got to me. I had no control over what would pop up next,” she says. “It made me mentally ill and physically sick.”

Now, after medical support, she feels stronger. “I’m out of the woods. I’ve turned a corner. I still wobble — but I’m here to tell the tale.”

Christmas, Ravenseat-style

This Christmas will be typically chaotic. Presents are modest. The focus is on animals fed first, children gathered, and a huge turkey bought cheaply at the last minute.

Seats will be improvised. Someone will sit on a washing basket, another on a milk churn. Snow, if it comes, will bring silence and wonder.

“We’re not perfect,” Amanda shrugs. “But when the kids remember Christmas, it’s never about gifts. It’s about the disasters — the frozen pipes, the stuck tractors, the stories.”

And as for Amanda and Clive?
“No, we won’t stop bickering,” she laughs. “When we do, something will be very wrong.”

Christmas Tales From The Farm by Amanda Owen is out now.

Source: 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/