Rachel Riley shares major future life update with Pasha Kovalev

Rachel Riley may relish splitting her time between London and Salford, where Countdown is filmed. But now with two children in tow and their education to factor in, the TV star and her husband Pasha Kovalev are planning a big upheaval. 

During an interview with The Times, the 37-year-old revealed that the couple are looking to sell their London-based home for somewhere in commutable distance to the city and her workplace in the north.

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 “I think we’re hopefully going to move out of London in the next couple of years,” she shared. “Probably not back to Essex but somewhere commutable to London.

“Countdown is filmed in Salford, so somewhere we can get up and down to there as well. So probably west, I quite like west. I was at uni in Oxford and my brother is there as well.”

MORE: Rachel Riley shares debilitating struggle after ‘being ill for 10 years’ 

The former Strictly contestant is a doting mother to two children, three-year-old Maven and 18-month-old Noa, both of whom she shares with husband Pasha. 

Future schools for their daughters will also play a huge factor in their decision. She added: “It will be a big thing looking at schools and planning more long-term as I’ve never been a planner. 

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“This is the first time we’re going to look at senior schools to see where we want to live, even though my daughter’s only three.” 

Rachel admitted that they want to “get a proper family home” where her children can grow bigger. “So hopefully we’ll be looking at keeping our flat and remortgaging so we can buy another place, and just have somewhere stable, where we can grow older,” she continued. 

SEE: Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev look absolutely smitten in stunning new wedding selfie

Both Rachel and Pasha tied the knot after meeting on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013. They began dating the following year and revealed in July 2019 that they had secretly tied the knot in Las Vegas. 

Despite meeting on the BBC show, Rachel previously opened up about her experience of the Strictly ‘curse’. During her time on the show, the TV star announced her split from her first husband Jamie Gilbert. Shortly after the series, she and Pasha confirmed they were in a relationship. 

Speaking to the Sunday Times Magazine last year, the blonde beauty expressed her feelings about the ‘curse’, the idea that celebrities tend to fall in love with their professional partners, arguing that it wasn’t the right term for her experience. 

Rachel joked: “Are you calling my babies a curse? That’s not right!” The maths whiz went on: “If you have cracks, Strictly can expose them. It gave me the distance to make the break that was going to happen anyway.”