COUNTDOWN star Rachel Riley has opened up about her marriage to ex-Strictly star Pasha Kovalev – saying they are currently "ships that past in the night" with their busy work schedule.

The Channel 4 star, 37, who shares two-year-old daughter Maven, and one-year-old Noa with Pasha, said it's often a challenge to squeeze in alone time with her hubby.

Rachel said date nights are rare but admitted she wouldn't change a thing, saying she enjoys this phase of parenthood.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Rachel said: "I guess it's family time as much as anything at the moment. We have a rare date night because he's going to be away for quite a long time.

"But when you first get together, if they're away for three months and you've only been together a month, it's a big deal.

"But when you've been together the best part of a decade and you can see a future of how ever many more decades that you get together, it kind of changes your perspective.

READ MORE ON RACHEL RILEY

Countdown’s Rachel Riley brings the glamour in plunging summer dress

Countdown’s Rachel Riley shows off her figure in tight rainbow coloured dress

"When you have kids as well, on a day to day basis, I'm just like 'what am I doing this afternoon', it's the summer holidays and I've got to keep them busy and we will see him here and everywhere when he's around.

"We're ready to go and see friends that we've not seen in a while and we accidentally arranged to go to Brighton the same weekend that he's doing his show in Brighton, that's quite nice.

"I need to be more organised to see what days he off – I'm juggling so many things."

Rachel said it's important to make time for romance and to keep the spark alive.

Most read in News TV

"It's nice to have date nights especially as we can be ships that pass in the night, especially when you have kids as well," the mathematician continued.

"He was choreographing a film in Romania recently for five weeks and he got back and straight into rehearsals.

"It's been busy, it's been different, but everything is always in flux. It would be nice, once I'm not feeding the baby and picking her up, maybe we could even have a night together but that feels like a million miles away at the moment."

The TV favourite said she is prioritising family life right now and is enjoying the precious moments with her girls.

"You can't just go out in the evening when you want to, you have to do bath and bedtime," she laughed.

"Before kids you could go out and have couple's night.

"We know it's temporary because they get bigger and you can get babysitters more easily and you're not breastfeeding and they can go to sleep with out you and less reliant.

"We're enjoying this phase of having little ones but then we know it's not going to be forever.

"When the kids get old and move out, you've still got each other and we value that and we look forward to that when we can get back to that but also we don't feel time constrained."

Rachel admitted that motherhood has been full of highs and lows, especially when Pasha is away for weeks.

She told us: "We take each step as it comes, we were lucky that we had Pasha's mum came for the first baby and she got stuck due to the pandemic and then came for the second baby and got stuck because the war broke out.

"The biggest challenge is the relentless of it – when Pasha was in Romania it was just me trying to put two kids to bed at the same time for five weeks.

"You have that mum rage 'I'm not an octopus', I can't do seven things at once.

"I think if the house is messy, you tidy it up in the evenings. I'm just learning to not see the mess because you can't do everything and if the kids are happy, healthy and clean then the rest you can get done at some stage."

The mum-of-two said she has learnt to juggle her busy TV career, family life and her marriage, among various other projects.

"You just adapt, you have you stresses, the house is a mess and you need to go shopping and one kid is drawing on the walls. But it's all temporary and it all changes all the time," she continued.

"The little one is 20 months now, when she hit 18 months it go a lot easier because they can play.

"When Pascha went to Romania for a week I just took them on holiday be myself, because I thought at least that would save the cooking and the cleaning.

"I was dreading going to the airport by myself, going on a plane by myself, they were really good and we went to a family friendly place."

Rachel has teamed up with Weetabix – the nation’s favourite cereal brand who are an official partner of the Football Associations.

On Saturday 22^nd July (this weekend) the Lionesses will kick off their first World Cup match against Haiti.

To celebrate, Weetabix will be taking over BOXPARK Wembley (rebranding it at WeetaBOXPARK) to create a family-friendly football extravaganza like no other.  

Rachel will be on site to help attempt something very special – they are going to set a NEW world record that will unite football fans.

As a nation we love goal celebrations. Whether its iconic moves like Peter Crouch’s robot or Chloe Kelly pulling her top over her head – we all cheer with joy when our favourite footballer busts a groove as they mark a brilliant goal!

Read More on The Sun

Mum issues urgent warning after her six-week-old son left fighting for life

Sky customers realising they can access HIDDEN upgrade – but there’s a catch

We also love to replicate these moves ourselves – helping us to feel a part of the action.

• Tickets are FREE, simply click here and register here.
• If you can’t make Saturday, then WeetaBOXPARK will also be celebrating the England V Denmark game on Friday 28th which you can register for here.

Source: Read Full Article