Anita Rani said she wants to do a road trip across Ireland because it feels like her spiritual home. She said the trip would fit a new chapter in her life, and she paired that with a sharper edge in how she wants to live and work now.
“People talk about India being their spiritual home, but for me it’s Ireland,” she said. “There’s something about that kind of yearning, melancholy, naughty sense of humour, pride in their culture and their arts, so I want to do a road trip across Ireland.”
Anita Rani Explores
The travel idea lands alongside two recent launches: her podcast Sisters of Defiance and her travel, food and wellness-focused YouTube channel Anita Rani Explores. Bal will accompany her on the YouTube series, and he also appeared with her on last year’s Celebrity Race Across the World. The route itself has not been set out, but the trip she described would build on the kind of travel work she is already pushing forward.
That broader shift has also come through in how she talks about herself. In Best magazine, she said she is in “a new phase of life now” after splitting from Bhupi Rehal in 2023, following 14 years of marriage. She added that she has “almost” a new appreciation for her life and “more gratitude,” before saying, “In fact, I want to get wilder and more outrageous. I want to shock more!”
Bradford to Ireland
The pull toward Ireland sits beside a different origin story. Although Anita Rani says Ireland feels like home, she was born and brought up in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and her parents originally hail from India. She has said Bal and Lakhbir ignited her love for the outdoors, which helps explain why her travel projects now sit so close to family history as well as personal reinvention.
She has already moved into that space on screen and online. On Celebrity Race Across the World, she said she regressed to her teenage self and was “stomping and pouting,” and Bal said, “She was running into the road, and I just told her to step back!”
July 5 on Two
Her latest travel work also reached Two on July 5, when Anita Rani’s East Coast Road Trip: Northey Island aired from 6pm to 7pm. For readers following her next move, the open question is simple: the Ireland idea is now public, but the specific route or destinations she would choose have not been laid out yet.
