FREE AND FIGHTING FIT

After years of unhappiness, Lady Isabella Hervey is embracing the simple pleasures of exercise and nature as she builds a new life in the Algarve

- TRACY SCHAVERIEN

Strolling along a vast sandy beach and gazing out to sea as waves lap the shore, Lady Isabella Hervey is feeling happier, calmer and more at peace than she has done in years.

The former model, socialite and TV personality is determined to come back stronger as she builds a new life for herself and her three young children following an unhappy marriage.

As she meets HELLO! near her home in Portugal's Algarve for this exclusive interview and photoshoot, she looks fit, strong and healthy – a reflection of the mindset she has adopted as she looks to the future with renewed optimism.

Now surviving on little money and with barely any furniture, she is rebuilding a career as a fitness instructor and enjoying simple pleasures as she navigates life as a single mother.

“I’m better than I've ever been, because I have peace and I have freedom,” Isabella says. “I used to have very high anxiety levels, and now I don’t.

“I’m happier with the simple life I have now. When I was married, I was miserable. Sometimes you can be in a nice hotel or the best restaurant, or have a new designer handbag... but I don’t need any of that.

“I forget that I even have a title; it doesn’t define who I am. I don’t need much to be happy and I think people underestimate that.”

Isabella, who rose to fame in the early 2000s on TV shows such as BBC1’s Celebrity Masterchef, Channel 4’s The Games and Sky One’s Cirque de Celebrité, is now focusing on bringing up her children – Victor, nine, Patrick, seven, and India, six – after her marriage to wealthy Belgian property entrepreneur Christophe de Pauw ended two years ago.

“It’s very challenging at home, but they are the most loving, amazing kids,” she says.