DAME ESTHER RANTZEN'S DAUGHTER REBECCA WILCOX THE T.V. PRESENTER ON RECAPTURING HER IDYLLIC CHILDHOOD - AND PREPARING FOR LIFE WITHOUT HER LEGENDARY MUM

When Rebecca Wilcox is pottering around her 18th-century farmhouse in the Surrey countryside, she often recalls the happy times spent at her mother Dame Esther Rantzen's idyllic home in the New Forest.

- TRACY SCHAVERIEN

Rebecca and her husband Jim Moss moved out of London three years ago and, as soon as she saw this property, with its low-beamed ceilings and views of fields, she couldn't help but notice its similarities to Dame Esther's own slice of paradise.

"I feel like I have re-created that here," Rebecca says as she invites HELLO! to her home for this exclusive interview and photoshoot with sons Benjamin, 11, and nine-year-old Alexander.

"My mum's house is where Jim proposed, where we got married and where I went after both kids were born. It has always been a sanctuary and a paradise. So, when I saw a picture of this house I said to Jim: 'This would be heaven; can you imagine? It's my dream house and we still pinch ourselves that we live here."

BOUNCING BROADCAST LEGEND

Benjamin and Alexander have spent countless weekends and holidays with their grandmother, who told HELLO! in 2021 how she still liked to bounce on the trampoline with the boys and their cousins. Sadly Esther, who turns 84 this month, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer last year, but while she no longer gets involved in rough and tumble, she remains a huge influence in the boys' lives.

"She is very mischievous and if the boys haven't said 'poo' or asked for something they're not supposed to have, like ice cream instead of fruit, then she hasn't done her job for the day," says Rebecca with a laugh.

"She can't be called Grandma or Granny or Nan; those names never suited her, so my eldest named her Etta. She's got such a fun sense of humour and strong sense of play.

LIVING IN THE MOMENT

"We're so lucky that she is still with us," adds Rebecca, 44, a journalist and consumer presenter on the BBC's Morning Live programme. "We had another Christmas and she's having another birthday. She saw the tulips come up that she planted.