What made you decide to move back to the sea?

I grew up by the sea and I love surfing; it’s my greatest passion, so that was my draw. Everyone in the family wanted to get back to the sea, so we started thinking about how we could make it happen for us. We thought, ‘why can’t we just all move together and live the life that we want to?’.
And then we came across this thing called a multi-trophic aquaculture, which is an ocean farm that grows seaweed and shellfish.

When COVID hit, we had the lockdowns, and the family were all very separated. That actually really solidified why we needed to move away from where we were.

Before we knew it, we suddenly had farmers working on the sea farm and they were three hours away from where we lived, so we had to pack up and move. Then, in between lockdowns, our family, plus Grandma and Grandad were all living together in a bunkhouse for months, while we were looking for a place big enough to house us all together. Eventually, we found this property – and here we are.

What does home mean to you?

I’ve lived all over the place. I’ve lived in America, all over the UK and there’s always a magnet to the sea. Whenever I find myself in a place where I’m not within at least 20 minutes of the sea, there is something in me that’s always saying, ‘I need to be closer’.

Our home is very much like our personalities and how we live. That’s extremely important to me because I need to be in a space where I can be inspired, I can relax, and I can feel comfortable. And that means being around photos of our travels as a family, our life that we’ve had, pictures and mementoes. That means that I need to have it within eyesight. I think the grandparents don’t mind our setup too much either, they’ve got their little trinkets and things, so everyone feels at home.

Yours is quite a unique living experience, but do you feel like it’s represented in the media?

If I just think about how home is portrayed, I don’t see many multi-generational families. You might see a movie about it, but it’s quite sensationalised, and it’s all rosy and it’s all great.

The reality is, it’s not always that way, especially when you have everybody still working, both grandparents working full-time and with the kids at school and nursery. It’s go, go, go, all day long and even on the weekends, because it is a farm store so we all still have other things going on. I don’t think we are represented accurately, and I would love for that to change.

I’d love for people to have different ideas about life at home, and I think there might be a bit of a shift towards that, especially after pandemic lockdowns, because I know many people wanted to move away from cities or out of apartment blocks.

Could you ever see yourself living in a different place?

Unless anything happens family-wise, I probably won’t leave. But if it does, then it’ll have to be back to the sea. So wherever we go, that’s the number one. No negotiations there at all.

What was it like to have Annie Leibovitz visit your home and take your portrait?

Well, if I’m being completely honest with you, I thought this was an extremely elaborate scam – all the way up until the moment I met Annie. It just didn’t seem right; how, why would Annie Leibovitz come here and take our photos? Just bonkers! I’ve been a fan as long as I can remember, and it was just a brilliant, brilliant production.