Amanda Owen has admitted that her farming business is in 'dire straits' and that her family of nine children have relied on 'screen time' to survive. The 52-year-old, known as the Yorkshire Shepherdess, currently appears in the More 4 documentary series Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive And Kids, which follows her life in the countryside with her nine children as they renovate a centuries-old derelict farmhouse known as Anty John's into a modern home.
TV as a Lifeline
Owen has defended her children's screen time, given that the TV industry is propping up their livelihoods on the remote Ravenseat farm in the Yorkshire Dales. She noted that the internet can only be accessed inside the farmhouse, giving her the "perfect split".
She said: "It would be incredibly hypocritical to say, 'Oh, no screen time, screens are death knell of society', because that would be totally and utterly not what I believe. Screen is what has been our lifeline. It's what has given us the ability to put ourselves out there and basically to prop the whole business of farming up, which, let's be honest, is in dire straits. Our farm diversification is through the media and without a screen, that would not have been possible."
Family Life and Screen Limits
Owen co-parents her nine children – Raven, 25, Reuben, 23, Miles, 20, Edith, 18, Violet, 16, Sidney, 15, Annas, 13, Clemmy, 11, and Nancy, 10 – with her ex-partner Clive Owen. She said she feels "blessed" to have the space in the countryside to allow her children to do other things rather than sit watching their screens.
She said: "We don't set limits on it, but there's other things going on. There's other things for them to do. So I've never really had to sort of push that one. The dynamics are always changing. To have this space to be in the countryside and have animals and open land and stuff to do for all the children, there's plenty to keep everybody interested to do other things."
Owen said her life changed when she read The Hill Shepherd – A Photographic Essay, by John and Eliza Forder, which documents the lives of fell and hill shepherds in north-west England. She said: "I failed miserably at school. Wasn't bad, wasn't good. I was just in the middle. I was just, sort of, like, coasting. Wasn't anything because nothing inspired me. And it was when I found a book that did inspire me that set me on the path, the trajectory to where I am today."
Responding to Criticism
On an Instagram Live video, Amanda took a moment to fire back at one criticism she spotted this week, accusing her of making her children unhappy due to the constant glare of the media spotlight that they're under. The comment Amanda was most likely referring to was posted on a pic of her family by @gail_meredith2022, who had written under Amanda's photo of the family gathered on the farm to celebrate the new series: "Some of them look really unhappy, perhaps they've had enough of their privacy being invaded."
Amanda, on her Instagram Live, took the opportunity to fire back. She explained that the kids had 'screwed up faces' because it was windy and that the kids are always free to avoid the cameras if they want to. She told her viewers: "Somebody said the other day on a comment on a photo, your children look unhappy. And yes I will admit there were a few screwed up faces but we had screwed up faces because it was windy we were all trying to smile at the same time and our hair was blowing in the wind. Oh, get over yourself! If anyone doesn't wanna be on the telly they just run away."
She later added: "Do any kids like having their photo taken? No not particularly, of course not, but it's part of it, it's part of what we do. People don't realise is that this aspect props up the other stuff we do, we couldn't keep this farm going without the media side, but we couldn't do the media side without the farm. It's a blessing. We enjoy being out there and doing what we do. We're proud of what we do, okay."
She then thanked fans for 'tuning in' and stressed that the next episode of Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive & Kids will be shown on Monday, October 19 at 9pm on More4.
