Rosie Owen’s stepdaughter (husband Clive) was shocked to hear that Amanda Owen, a Yorkshire shepherdess, was in serious financial trouble. She might have been forgiven if Rosie had raised a little cheer.
According to Rosie, mother-of-nine Amanda — who found fame as the glamorous shepherdess in a miniskirt, star of the hit TV show Our Yorkshire Farm — is the reason why she and her father have been largely estranged for the past 16 years.
Yet Rosie, an artist who lives with her husband and three children in Cumbria — just a 20-minute drive over the county border from her old family home, Ravenseat, the location for the Channel 5 series — feels ‘desperately sorry’ for her dad, knowing the pain that the marital situation, which is understood to have been going on for some months, will have caused him.
‘Dad will be absolutely miserable. He adores Amanda. Rosie, 34, said that he would do anything to help her.
It emerged that shepherdess Amanda Owen’s marriage to husband Clive was in crisis, but her stepdaughter Rosie (pictured) said Amanda is the reason she is estranged from her father
“It” [the TV series]Clive wasn’t in the scene. Although he seemed to enjoy it, Amanda is now the one who has it all.
‘It [the Owens’ split]She doesn’t do much to her image, but she’s going far. Next, she will be on Loose Women.
“They would be together for ever if my dad allowed it.” But it was only a matter of time after all this fame.
Rosie paints a different picture than the one we see on television of Amanda and the idyllic life on their 2,000-acre farm in Upper Swaledale.
Viewers fell in love with the Owens’ family of nine ‘free-range” children aged between four to 20 years old.
The show is in its fifth series and attracting 2.9 million viewers — and is said to have made the Owens millionaires.
Rosie is not able to bear to watch it. She says that she found it extremely heartbreaking the first few times she tried.
“If they weren’t on television, I would be a person without a relationship with my father. Now, I’m a woman whose father is well-known for being a father but he’s not to me.
Rosie stated that she is sorry for Clive because she knows the pain Amanda (both pictured) has caused him.
Rosie isn’t bitter if she sounds it.
She was nine years old when her parents divorced and she and her mother and brother moved from Ravenseat to Kirkby Stephen.
Rosie believes that Clive (now 68) met Amanda (now 47), a former model of 6ft 2in who was in her early 20s a few weeks later.
Amanda, the daughter of an engineer and a part time model and typist, was not from a farming family.
The story goes that she fell in love and became a trainee shepherdess after reading books.
She met Clive when she went to his farm to borrow a male sheep — a tup — and Clive was ‘quite taken’ with her.
Not long afterwards, someone — Rosie can’t remember who — pointed Amanda out and told her that she was her father’s new girlfriend.
Rosie recalls, “She was so beautiful.” “Dad was completely captivated by this woman, and he instantly fell in love with her.”
Rosie doesn’t resent her presence. Rosie says that she was eager to develop a close relationship and a good friendship with her dad’s beautiful girlfriend. Their relationship began well with Amanda buying wetsuits and taking them out for outdoor swimming.
She has vivid memories of Amanda’s relationship that became strained very soon after.
She recalls that she was sitting on her dad’s knee and she looked at me in a way that made her feel disgusted. ‘I never tried to get any affection from him before that.
Rosie, who was 13 years old and was a bridesmaid for her father’s wedding to Amanda, recalled feeling’very hormonal’ before the big day.
“After the wedding, there was barely any communication [between Rosie and Amanda]Although I still remember being so excited when Raven appeared, [Amanda and Clive’s first child]It was born.
“I loved her dearly and would often go up to Ravenseat to play. Sometimes they would let us have her over night at our Kirkby home.
“I was called up to Ravenseat during Reuben [Amanda’s second child]Raven was my first child. I can still remember being astonished at Amanda, the amazing woman who gave birth at her home. I said, “Isn’t she beautiful!” She ignored me.
‘I just felt so uncomfortable and unwanted up there — my dad was following this woman around like a lost puppy — that I stopped going.’
Rosie paints a different picture than the one we know from TV’s Our Yorkshire Farm (pictured). Rosie depicts Amanda and the idyllic ideal of Upper Swaledale life.
Although there are two sides to every story and Amanda may have a different recollection, Rosie is certain that Amanda and Clive did not make enough effort to help her transition to being a stepmother or to reassure that she was okay.
While it is not unusual for parent-child or parent-stepchild relationships to become strained in adolescence and then go sour, most of these relationships are repaired in adulthood. Rosie’s story is sad.
She was 18 and had just gave birth to Layla, her first child. Amanda was 16.
“I went to Ravenseat and Amanda (who had three children by that time) didn’t say: “She is beautiful.” Well done. Congratulations. Congratulations.
Rosie claims that she longed for a relationship with her stepmother, and has dreamt of them becoming friends many times over the years. But the heartbreak is in her separation from her father.
“I tried and tried to build relationships with my father, but we can only go for a year at time without speaking,” she said.
“I don’t know if it is because I’m a connection to his past, and if she’s the reason. [Amanda]She doesn’t like women, but honestly, I don’t know why.
So what does Clive, who calls in on Rosie in the run-up to Christmas each year and gives her £200 to buy his grandchildren presents, have to say on the subject?
Rosie weeps.
During our interview, she was overwhelmed by the pain of her separation from her father.
“He will raise his hands and confess that he has done you wrong. He isn’t in denial about this. But all he says is: ‘I can’t speak for Amanada, you just never got on,’ — although that’s not fair. I was just an infant and really wanted to be with her.
Rosie says that he doesn’t feel strong enough to tell her that he’s ever made an effort to be kind to her. He must have just accepted it.
Clive is a father to Raven, 20, Reuben and Miles, 17, Edith, 12, Violet and Sidney, respectively. Edith, Violet, Sidney, Nine, Annas, Seven, Clemmy, Five, and Nancy, Four. What kind of granddad is he?
“The time we went Ravenseat [seven years ago]Layla asked him if he would be okay with her calling him granddad. He replied, “Just call me Clive.” Rosie says, “I’d feel old.”
“He has never seen his grandchildren in all his years of life, so he has no real connection with them.
“The insecurities I’ve experienced and the self-esteem issues that I’ve had as a result have been enormous.”
Amanda is estimated to have made a million pounds from her various enterprises — as well as TV appearances she has written books, launched the streaming channel Ewe Tube in partnership with Premier Inn, which is designed to help fans sleep, and opened a cafe to serve the thousands who travel to Upper Swaledale for a glimpse of the famous farm.
Rosie, a single mother, has had her ups and downs. She says, “I have been through some difficult times and they have never helped me out.”
Rosie believes that Clive (both pictured), 68, met Amanda, now 47, who is a former model, at 6ft 2in, just a few weeks after her parents divorced.
She hopes for a reconciliation with her father, and hopes to have a long-lasting relationship with her half siblings.
In spite of everything, she hopes that Owens’ marital rocky patch can be repaired.
“I saw him at traffic signals near my house last weekend and he said: “Oh, do we think we should chat now?” I replied, ‘Yes, maybe’, and he drove off, as the lights had changed.
Rosie is sad that her dad is not there to comfort him, but she says she’s too nervous to show up at Ravenseat by herself.
This week’s statement confirmed the Owens’ marital problems. It was made after intense speculation in the area, after Amanda was seen at a nearby rental home.
The couple stated: “With the TV show, and the books, I’ve always aimed at showing the reality of life in the farm. And just like any marriage, we have our stresses, strains, and all the complexities that go with raising nine kids.
“We’re a normal couple and we’ve never said that our marriage was perfect. Unfortunately, the constant intrusion of the media into our lives has only amplified the rocky patches that we are currently going through. We ask that the media respect our privacy as we go through this.
The Mail reached out to the Owens for comment, but they declined to respond to Rosie’s allegations.
Amanda, despite her request for privacy, appeared on ITV’s This Morning Tuesday. She was there to host a cooking segment with her three daughters. This was following an interview she did on Zoe Ball’s breakfast show, where she discussed her new book.
If the couple are unable to patch up their differences, this latest series of Our Yorkshire Farm — portraying, as it does, their idyllic family life — will surely be the last.
Rosie says, “Given my experience working with her, I believe viewers have been blinded by the real Amanda.”
‘But still, I hope they sort things out for the sake of the children — and my dad, because I know that’s what he’ll want, above all else.’