She is known for being a designer on the BBC shows Changing Rooms and the subject of Chaos at the Zoo, which documents her ownership of Manor House Wildlife Park in Pembrokeshire.
Her adoptive father was a World War II evacuee who survived the sinking of the SS City of Benares by a German U-boat; he spent his career as a Lloyd's underwriter.
[1] She was introduced to her partner, restaurateur Colin MacDougall, by Gregg Wallace at his restaurant on New Year's Eve 2000, and they married at a private ceremony in the Canadian Rockies.
[8] She was charged for health and safety violations in 2012, after a mother and son were injured by a falling tree, but acquitted after her husband admitted that work fell under his remit.
[5] In 2015, she set up a charity called 'The Nature Foundation' to transport neglected lionesses from an abandoned zoo in Gyumri to Peak Wildlife Park.
She successfully raised £25,000 to transport the animals, but the high-profile nature of the campaign ensured that locals provided adequate facilities for the lionesses in their native Armenia.