Rachel Riley and her former Strictly Come Dancing pro husband Pasha Kovalev are taking serious steps to ensure their baby daughter grows up bilingual.
Countdown star Rachel appeared on Good Morning Britain on Thursday where she spoke to hosts Ben Shepherd and Susanna Reid.
Rachel opened up on raising her nine-month old daughter Maven with Pacha, who is Russian.
Susanna said: “Apparently you are teaching her Russian already! At nine months old.”
Rachel replied: “Not necessarily me, but obviously Pasha, so he is speaking to her solely in Russian and I am speaking to her in English.
“I have to stop myself from speaking to her in bad Russian.
“We are hoping she will be bilingual because [Pasha’s] mum doesn’t speak any English.”
She went on: “She came over just before lockdown for one month and got stuck here for five months.
“So [Maven] had a lot more Russian exposure than we thought she would, but it will be good for her.”
Ben replied: “It will be absolutely amazing for her, is she starting to walk yet? Has she started to pull herself up and cause any problems like that?”
“She is so mobile,” said Rachel.
“She is crawling , and she can walk holding one hand now.”
Ben joked: “You get so used to putting them and then coming back and them still being there, and then suddenly they have gone, and you think, ‘Oh no, what did I do with it?’”
Rachel replied that Maven was always audible as she babbles a lot and if she does wander off she comes straight back to find out what her parents are up to.
Rachel and Pasha met on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 and began dating a year later, marrying in 2019 and welcoming their first child in December.
Maths-whizz Rachel recently returned to the Countdown studio for a new socially distanced series.
She recently told OK!: “It’s completely different now we’ve got the baby, but in terms of social distancing, we didn’t have to make too many changes because we’re all quite spaced out anyway!”
She added: “Maven loves coming to work and crawling around.
“She’s already pulling all the dresses off the rail in my dressing room and testing my heels!”
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am
