Countdown star Rachel Riley has opened up about her marriage to Strictly Come Dancing professional, Pasha Kovalev, admitting their date nights feel like “a million miles away”

Maths whizz Rachel Riley has opened up about her marriage to Strictly Come Dancing star Pasha Kovalev. Despite often sharing sweet pics of them together on Instagram, she admitted they can sometimes feel like “ships passing in the night” due to their hectic lives.

Opening up about their jam-packed schedules only allowing for the odd date night, Rachel previously said: “When you first get together, if they’re away for three months and you’ve only been together a month, it’s a big deal. But when you’ve been together the best part of decade and you can see a future of how ever many more decades that you get together, it kind of changes your perspective.”

Chatting to The Sun in July, Rachel revealed “everything is always in flux” in her relationship with the professional dancer. She added: “It would be nice, once I’m not feeding the baby and picking her up, maybe we could even have a night together, but that feels a million miles away at the moment.” She also said she needed to be “more organised” to see what days Pasha has off, pointing out: “I’m juggling so many things.”

The couple met on Strictly Come Dancing and tied the knot in Las Vegas in 2019. They are now proud parents to two adorable daughters, Maven, four, and Noa, two.

Even with their hectic schedules, including Pasha’s musical theatre debut last year, and looking after their little girls, brainy Rachel said that they understand this part of parenthood is just fleeting. She shared that they are “enjoying this phase of having little ones”.

I’ve found it quite liberating. It makes you live in the moment a lot more,” she said, adding: “”It’s like we know a totally different baby because all the tricks we know work differently for both of us. Pasha is a wonderful dad. He’s really, really brilliant.”

Rachel was previously married to Jamie Gilbert and speaking to GQ magazine in 2019, Rachel said the pair had remained good friends since their divorce.

She explained: “I’m still friends with my ex-husband. He’s great, he’s a brilliant guy. We were together since I was 19 and it wasn’t right… What Strictly did give me was distance because I was away from home in Birmingham, Salford, Borehamwood. It was the emotional distance I needed to break away.”