QUEEN BEE

Two years ago, Ann Kaplan Mulholland and her husband, Stephen, left Canada behind to transform a medieval English castle. Here's how the fairytale is unfolding

- AMY BIELBY

She didn't intend to buy a castle. But after Ann Kaplan Mulholland and her husband, Dr. Stephen Mulholland, relocated from Toronto to London in 2023, the pair discovered that housing prices in England were so high, it made sense to go big or go home.

"We looked for an apartment," the entrepreneur tells Hello! Canada. "But a house was cheaper than a flat. And so I thought, 'I wonder how much a castle is."

The timing was perfect. Ann had recently left her career in finance, and her stint on The Real Housewives of Toronto was well behind her. Stephen, meanwhile, had laid down his scalpel as a plastic surgeon. So why not purchase and restore Lympne Castle-a 27,000-square-foot, 944-year-old Grade 1 listed building in the county of Kent - and make a reality program out of it!

"I was called by a production company to do a show on entrepreneurship for women," says Ann, who wasn't fond of the idea but came back with another. "I told them, 'We've got this offer in on a castle. I think it would be cool to do a TV show about renovating a castle.' The day our offer was accepted, I got a call saying, 'Your show has been picked up.'"

From there, it was full steam ahead on the restoration of their new property and production of their unscripted series, Queen of the Castle.

Here, the couple, both 64, chat about their ambitious construction project, the warm welcome they received from their British neighbours, and the secret to their happy marriage.