Countryfile presenter Anita Rani is ‘beginning to breathe for the first time’ after her divorce . The 46-year-old star split from her husband Bhupi Rehal in September 2023 after 14 years together, and she admitted while divorce ‘isn’t easy to talk about’ due to being raised by her Indian-born Sikh mother and Indian-born Hindu father. Her family saw her decision as a ‘cardinal sin’, but she now feels ‘answerable to no one’ after moving on following the end of her marriage.
‘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 told the Sunday Times . ‘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.’ That inner turmoil meant Anita grew to ‘resent’ doing what she saw as her ‘duty’, but now she has the freedom to follow her own path .
‘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,’ she added. Anita and Bhupi met at an East London rave in 2008 and were said to have bonded over their love of music, before getting married in Bradford the following year.
In spring 2023, Anita took herself on a solo holiday after noticing ‘so.
