Rachel Riley hilariously juggles Christmas shopping with sleeping daughter in supermarket trolley

Countdown queen Rachel Riley shared her novel way to still do last-minute Christmas shopping - even if the kids are getting in the way

With Christmas just days away, the last-minute Christmas shopping struggle - especially with kids in tow - is real.

But one celebrity parent had a novel way of fitting it all in. Countdown star Rachel Riley took to Instagram to share a video of her three-year-old daughter Noa asleep in a shopping trolley as she stocked up on festive food, like 65p brussel sprouts and bottles of wine, slotting the items in around her as she dozed through all the chaos.

Captioning the funny clip, which was filmed as she dashed around a supermarket on Saturday, 38-year-old Rachel said: "4 more sleeps until it's Christmas. Our mistake was not specifying when and when," followed by laughing face emojis. She added: "If only we could do this as adults," as Leona Lewis' Christmas hit One More Sleep played over the top of it.

One fan joked underneath: "That's crazy because in the States, we can't buy children in stores." Another said: "She looks so comfy." A third commented: "Oh my word, this is so cute." A fourth said: "Oh to be able to sleep like this again…!" A fifth added: "Is this the meaning of 'Shop til you drop', so cute," as a sixth added: "I thought it was an actual doll!!"

As well as Noa, Rachel has an older daughter Maven, who has just turned five, with her 44-year-old husband Pasha Kovalev. She met the Russian ballroom dancer when she appeared as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing back in 2013. They were partnered together, though at the time Rachel was married to Jamie Gilbert, who she met while they were both studying at Oxford University.

Their marriage last just over a year before Rachel and Jamie split in November 2013. Not long afterwards, Rachel went public with her new romance with Pasha in what some dubbed a case of the 'Strictly curse'. But their love was clearly for keeps as they got married in Las Vegas in June 2019. Their first child Maven arrived in December that year, followed by Noa in November 2021.

But the couple say four is the magic number. Rachel recently told HELLO! magazine: "We're happy where we are. If I had all the help in the world and all the staff in the world to keep having babies…but I think we're happy with two."

Revealing what a typical morning in their household looks like, Rachel shared: "The big one [Maven] comes in with me with the little one [Noa] and says, 'Hello' and it's cuddles, cuddles, cuddles. And then it's generally 'Can we go to the park, can we go to soft play, can we go to the beach?'

"And then it's, 'I want noodles. I want toast.' It just feels like it's constantly tidying up, feeding, and taking them to the park. I have two children and I took four vehicles to the park with me the other day to make sure they were happy! I had a pushchair, a scooter, a push bike and a cycling bike. And it's just like one person with two kids – two toddlers – and I'm just bag lady. Honestly, a 10-minute walk takes about an hour. So by the time you've got there, you have to turn around and keep feeding them again."

And oldest daughter Maven already appears to have inherited her mum's gift for maths. Rachel said she is "literally asking for maths videos for kids on YouTube." We wonder if Noa has her dad's dancing skills and could follow in his footsteps as she gets older...

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