Anita Rani has gushed that ‘life is good’ after splitting from her husband of 14-years Bhupi Rehal in 2023.
The Countryfile presenter, 46, also opened up about the future which she has branded ‘Chapter two’ of her life, after previously revealing she’d found freedom in getting divorced.
Telling Love Sunday Magazine: ‘Life is good, I’m in a good place. I’m focusing on myself and my own wants’.
‘It’s nice to be able to think about the second phase of my life. I’ve been calling it Chapter Two.’
Anita met her former husband at a rave in east London and married in a Sikh ceremony back in 2009, before splitting last September, believed to be as a result of their hectic schedules
Anita Rani, 46, has gushed that ‘life is good’ after splitting from her husband of 14-years Bhupi Rehal in 2023
The Countryfile presenter also opened up about the future which she has branded ‘chapter two’ of her life (Anita and ex-husband Bhupi pictured)
A source told The Mirror at the time: ‘It’s really sad but they’ve decided to separate. Their hectic schedules over the past couple of years have sadly meant they’ve drifted apart over time’.
Anita admitted she’d found ‘freedom’ after getting divorced in a candid piece for The Sunday Times , and explained how she has been navigating single life in her forties.
Anita, who was born and raised in Bradford, West Yorkshire by an Indian-born Hindu father and an Indian-born Sikh mother, also revealed how her upbringing had impacted her approach to life.
She confessed that her family believed divorce to be a ‘cardinal sin’, and while she admitted it ‘isn’t easy to talk about’, she wanted to detail how she feels about her life now so ‘that I am answerable to no one.’
Anita mused: ‘Becoming single in my mid-forties has made me re-evaluate everything. It has made me see how much I have been conditioned to be a dutiful woman, rather than a free woman.’
She continued: ‘I was raised to be a high achiever, to make my parents and family proud, but I was also raised never to bring shame. This is where it gets kind of problematic, especially if you are born with a vagina. So I guess I’ve lived in extreme conflict.’
Anita confessed that she ‘resented’ doing what she believed to be her ‘duty’ and mused: ‘Now I feel as if I’m beginning to breathe for the first time, do what I truly want to. And now hitting my mid-forties has given me a sense of urgency.’
The TV presenter touched upon covering the theme of generational trauma in her novel Baby Does A Runner.
She said: ‘Life is good, I’m in a good place. I’m focusing on myself and my own wants’
Anita met her former husband at a rave in east London and married in a Sikh ceremony back in 2009, before splitting last September, believed to be as a result of their hectic schedule (pictured 2018)
Anita explained to Good Housekeeping at the time: ‘I grew up in a Punjabi family where men and women were treated very differently and I could see the inequality everywhere around me.
‘But when you have something to fight against, it really empowers you. It’s like a fire inside that drives you.’
Anita has previously discussed being one become one of the few British Asian presenters on television and wanting to dispel stereotypes.
She told Good Housekeeping in 2020: ‘First of all, it feels great to have worked so hard and achieved something like that; smashing glass ceilings is a pretty great feeling.
‘But it’s important to me to speak out about the struggles I’ve had, too.
Anita admitted she’d found ‘freedom’ after getting divorced and explained how she has been navigating single life in her forties
Anita, who was born and raised in Bradford, West Yorkshire by an Indian-born Hindu father and an Indian-born Sikh mother, revealed how her upbringing had impacted her approach to life (pictured in childhood with parents Balvinder Nazran and Lakhvir Taggar)
‘The perception of Asian women has always been very binary; people think we’re quite square and clever and that we don’t have sex until we’re married (of course, Mother, I didn’t have sex until I got married!).
‘But that’s just not the case. I’ve hated being put into boxes my whole life.’
In May, Anita revealed she had moved back in to a flat she bought 30 years ago and had decided to transform it into her dream home following her marital split.
She told Good Housekeeping: ‘I feel like I’ve stepped into a place that I never, ever expected myself to be in. I’m in uncharted territory – I’m a single, Asian woman with no children, and do you know what? I love it!’
