Amanda Owen addresses ‘resilient’ children following changes at new home with ex Clive

Amanda Owen has never sugar-coated her experience as a mother to nine children on a rural farm in Yorkshire.

This weekend was no exception, when she shared another candid insight into the highs and lows of her life on Ravenseat Farm with her ex Clive Owen.

Alongside sun-soaked pictures of her daughter examining the wildlife in a pond, the Our Yorkshire Farm star discussed her “resilient and strong” children Raven, Reuben, Miles, Edith, Violet, Sidney, Annas, Clementine and Nancy.

“Spring appears to have sprung,” she began the upbeat post, adding: “The children have been absorbed in watching the frogspawn hatch and seeing the tadpoles and froglets.”

Explaining the life lessons their time in nature is providing her kids, she said: “Hopefully nurturing the ability to be resilient and strong without losing any gentleness and wonderment at what we are blessed with. 

“Fostering a love for the outdoors and embracing the seasons through both their ferocity and tranquility. A reminder that good farming and land management can deliver good outcomes for the natural world.”

Ensuring fans are not fooled into thinking the picturesque photos represent day-to-day reality, Amanda had also posted photos of them suffering from a power outage just hours earlier.

Dressed in their school uniform, three of Amanda and Clive’s kids cuddled up on the leather sofa near a roaring log fire, offering the only heat and light in the vast home aside from a few candles.

Showing her laid-back attitude to the inconvenience, she wrote: “No power. No problem.”

Anty John’s restoration

However, they have not always managed to remain upbeat about their rural home. The family recently moved into their new home, Anty John’s, which is close to their farm, Ravenseat. Fans have followed the project in the series, Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids. 

Amanda and Clive – who continued to live near one another after their split was made public in 2022 – first purchased the derelict cottage in Swaledale named Anty John after a former owner, Anthony John Clarkson, in 2020. The residence was bought via auction, and it was originally listed for a guide price of £180,000.

They spent years restoring the property from a ruin with a caved-in roof to a family home, but it was not without its struggles.

Poor weather conditions slowed the progress on the renovation, with Clive explaining: “I feel a bit helpless because there’s not actually a lot I can do.

“It’s going so slowly at the moment. We come back and it’s like, ‘What’s been done? A few more slate (roof tiles).'”

The Yorkshire Shepherdess also said she felt “pressure” to complete the project.

It was a pinnacle moment for the whole family when the property was given electricity for the very first time. At the time, Amanda explained she felt like it was a visual sign to neighbours that they were “getting on” with the build.

Amanda’s kids

Despite having kids of varying ages, Amanda admitted they all “gravitate” home.

Ahead of the new series, Amanda made an appearance on Lorraine where she admitted: “We had nine of them, only one has actually left home. It seems like they gravitate back. 

“In an ideal world, I’d have one child in a hot country at all times so I could move round and get past some of this cold Yorkshire weather for a while. When you’ve been brought up here, it’s in you, it’s life lessons, it gives you a real grounding a sense of purpose and you’ll take that with you wherever you go in life.”

Meanwhile, Amanda and Clive have both said their recent renovations are futureproofing for their kids. While they do not yet know who will want to take on farming responsibilities, Reuben has expressed his interest with his show Reuben: Life In The Dales.