A terrifying brush with death has given Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen an even greater zest for life. A year ago, the flamboyant interior designer and former Changing Rooms star faced a harrowing near-drowning experience during Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt off Costa Rica, where he was dragged under a raft and only survived because Bear Grylls pulled him to the surface and revived him.
“It was a close shave, and I had a big reaction to the adrenaline afterwards,” Laurence recounts exclusively to HELLO!. “It was a very frightening situation – I couldn’t breathe and started passing out – and in many ways, it was more frightening in hindsight.”
He joked: “In my head I was James Bond, but the sad fact is that I’m actually more like Grandpa Pig.”
Lucky escape
Jackie vividly remembers her husband’s emotional phone call after the incident. “He was making quite light of it to begin with; then he was in tears.”
© Steve Thorp Photography
She admitted to shedding tears herself, adding, “When you go through something like that, it’s almost like PTSD, and the thinking back is probably more upsetting than going through it in the first place.”
“He doesn’t like being in the sea; he doesn’t like being out of his depth,” Jackie reveals. Watching the episode was daunting, but ultimately, she felt immense relief. “Phew, that was lucky – that was one of his nine lives.”
© Steve Thorp Photography
“I don’t want him doing anything like that again. And you know, you really don’t need to, because you’re Grandpa Pig these days,” she added.
Multi-generational Cotswolds home
This renewed appreciation for life is evident in the Llewelyn-Bowens’ vibrant Cotswolds manor, where they live with their two daughters, their husbands, and four small grandchildren. For the past five years, all ten family members have shared their eclectic home, with Laurence and Jackie relishing their roles as “naughty” grandparents.
Their elder daughter, Cecile, and her husband, Dan, a publisher, live in a converted garage block with their children, Albion, eight, and Demelza, four. Hermione, who manages the design company, and her husband, Drew, a financial consultant, live in another wing with their children, Romilly, three, and Eleanora, who is 18 months.
© Steve Thorp Photography
Laurence, who rose to fame on the 1990s TV show Changing Rooms, now leads the family interior design company and has his own brand of textiles and wallpaper – much of it on display at the 17th-century house that he and Jackie bought in 2007.
“I think this is exactly where families were 150 years ago,” Laurence muses, believing it’s foolish for young families to struggle alone in cities. “We’ve got the most spectacular garden, and we’ve got a lot of love, a lot of time and a lot of experience. To be able to pool that among all the generations is a really good thing.”
To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Monday. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
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