Clive Owen was running his farm single-handedly when he first set eyes on future wife Amanda.
The Our Yorkshire Farm star already had two children with his first wife before going on to have another nine with his current spouse.
Despite a 12-year age gap, divorced bachelor Clive, then 42, was drawn to 21-year-old trainee shepherdess Amanda when she came round on dark evening looking for a ram.
Born in Doncaster, Clive dreamed of being a sheep farmer from an early age and eventually came to run Ravenseat Farm in Upper Swaledale.
“It’s all I ever wanted to do really because I was hooked on sheep from being a little lad. My father wasn’t a farmer but there were farms all around me and I spent lots of time at them,” said Clive on the Channel 5 show.
“I caught the bug when I was eight-years-old and there was never any doubt that I wasn’t going to be a farmer. And my fate was sealed.”
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Clive was previously married and had two children with his first wife, but their relationship did not last and he was single when he first met Amanda in 1995.
Describing the first time they met, Amanda explained that she came to a burrow a “tup”, which is a male sheep, on a dark Yorkshire evening.
While it certainly wasn’t love at first site for Amanda, Clive was immediately attracted to the young woman standing in his doorway.
“I do remember this six-foot something woman knocked on the door,” he said. “I was very taken with her. You couldn’t not be.”
Amanda has previously joked that he shouldn’t have answered the door, but had he not then their romance would not have blossomed.
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They started off as friends but bonded over their shared passion for the farming life and eventually it grew into more.
“It was a slow burn thing we kind of got to know each other. Made friends first then went out a little bit together,” said Amanda.
“With us both coming from non-farming backgrounds we were kind of peas in a pod really but we didn’t know that at the time.”
Just five years after meeting, the loved-up couple got married in 2000 and have since gone on to have nine children together.
Running the farm is certainly a family affair as the kids all muck in to ease the workload, helping to run the heir 2,000 acre site which is home to 1,000 sheep, 40 cows, six dogs and four ponies.
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“We have a lot to do and we have to get to the end of what we do each day but although it looks chaotic we’re very focused and aware of where we should be,” said Clive.
“We have a lot of things depending on us, not just children.”
In an interview with The Telegraph, Amanda revealed Clive was so concerned with his flock that he survived on pies and cornflakes, and used one of his living rooms to keep feed bins in.
The couple didn’t plan to have such a large family but are now parents to Annas, Violet, Edith, Raven, Clemmy, Nancy, Reuben, Miles, and Sidney.
Having grown up sharing their parents’ passion for the farming way of life, Clive explained that the kids are eager to be involved and know their hard work is contributing.
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“I’ve always thought when we’ve been working the kids like to be part of something,” said Clive.
“It’s lovely when they are around to help and they help willingly. I miss them when they’re at school. When they’re at home it makes a difference definitely.”
While Amanda pointed out that their kids actually want to be involved with the day to day running of the farm and it provides an important life lesson.
“We all have to work together as a family. I really don’t feel that’s a bad lesson. This is what needs to happen and we all need to do it,” explained Amanda.
“I don’t feel like that’s sort of breeding your own workforce because it’s not that.
“It’s a fact of being involved and have that responsibility and being part of something. I think that’s a good thing.
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Clive has always been there to support Amanda, who gave birth on the roadside six times because they live so far away from the nearest hospital.
However, he did the the birth of their eighth child, daughter Clemmie, because he had already seen Amanda welcome six of their kids into the world and “wasn’t particularly bothered”.
“I put the kettle on, stoked up the fire and basically had her in front of the fire with just a terrier as a birthing partner, which is perfect,” she admitted.
Amanda bravely carried on alone and gave birth in front of the fire with only one of her pet dogs for support while Clive was asleep upstairs.
“Clive wasn’t desperate to be at the birth, he was asleep upstairs. I went and woke him up with the baby,” she told Radio Times.
“Of all the births I’ve had, this one has to have been the best – it was the most relaxing, the most quiet, the most peaceful.”
*Our Yorkshire Farm airs Tuesdays on Channel 5 at 9pm
Originally from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/yorkshire-farm-dad-clive-owens-24180630