Anna Ryder Richardson suffered from ‘palpitations’ throughout authorized woes

TV presenter Anna Ryder Richardson has declared that her 60s will be her best decade yet after winning a three-year legal battle to keep her zoo.

The former Changing Rooms star bought the Manor Wildlife Park 16 years ago with her ex-husband, restauranteur Colin MacDougall.

The couple’s struggle to turn the dilapidated Pembrokeshire reserve into a top tourist attraction was documented in the TV series Chaos at The Zoo. 

But when the couple’s marriage broke down in 2017, Anna found herself locked in a legal wrangle over who would retain ownership after their divorce.

She said: ‘For the last three years, I’ve woken up with palpitations about the situation. It’s been the worst time; it’s been going on such a long time. I do go: ‘have I wasted all this time, being in this horrid limbo and not really living my life?’

TV presenter Anna Ryder Richardson has declared that her 60s will be her best decade yet after winning a three-year legal battle to keep her zoo 

The former Changing Rooms star bought the Manor Wildlife Park 16 years ago with her ex-husband, restauranteur Colin MacDougall (pictured in 2012)

‘I’m a different scared now. Now I’m waking up with palpitations about the enormity of taking back the zoo. It’s terrifying, but it’s also really exciting. This is a new, improved Anna. This is Anna in a business suit.’

Speaking to Kaye Adams on her How To Be 60 podcast, Anna said she was now looking forward to the future after the turmoil of her marriage breakdown. 

She explained: ‘My girls are grown up, I need a purpose, this is my passion. This next chapter is going to be so exciting and in a way for me I think my life is going to begin at 60.’

Set in 52 acres near Tenby, Manor Wildlife Park, is home to endangered Sumatran tigers, as well as rhinos, zebra, gibbons, camels and lemurs. 

Despite the legal battle, Anna, 60, insisted she had no regrets about the impulsive decision to buy the zoo in the first place.

She told Kaye Adams: ‘I do think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done, even though my marriage has broken down and we then have bizarrely ended up fighting over the zoos – because actually there are two zoos involved. 

‘Three years we’ve been in legal battles. As the judge said: ”Right, you’ve got a zoo each. Now go away and be happy.” And that is what is going to happen, I will have my zoo and he will have his.’

But she conceded that running the park solo was a daunting prospect. ‘I will freely say that business is not my strength,’ she said.

The couple’s struggle to turn the dilapidated Pembrokeshire reserve (pictured) into a top tourist attraction was documented in the TV series Chaos at The Zoo

But when the couple’s marriage broke down in 2017, Anna found herself locked in a legal wrangle over who would retain ownership after their divorce (pictured in 2012)

‘But I had a very quick learning curve over the last year, particularly with looking at all the intricacies of business and learning how to read an account sheet. 

‘I’ve got some really good professionals around me as well, who will compensate for all my weak areas.

‘This time, rather than running around the zoo, chatting to the animals and the visitors and picking up rubbish, I will be in the office and I will understand the figures and I will learn how this business has got to be sustainable. Otherwise, we can’t look after the animals as well.’

Anna said that she had therapy to help her cope with her divorce and also with the recent heartbreaking discovery that her birth parents had been traced, but did not want any contact. 

The interior design guru, who was adopted by Colin and Jill Ryder Richardson when she was six weeks old, said: ‘In the last three years they found my birth mother and my birth father and neither of them want to meet me.

‘It was horrendous. My mother never told anybody, so that’s totally understandable. And he is just not a very nice guy. 

He’s Malaysian. I really thought this Malaysian man was going to come into my life, teach me how to cook and give me an orangutan, because we’d be hanging out in Malaysia. And he refuses to acknowledge that he has a daughter.’

Despite the legal battle, Anna insisted she had no regrets about the impulsive decision to buy the zoo in the first place

She said that she had therapy to help her cope with her divorce and also with the recent heartbreaking discovery that her birth parents had been traced, but did not want any contact

The former I’m a Celebrity contestant, who has two daughters from her marriage, Bibi Belle, 20 and Dixie Dot, 19, told How to be 60: ‘My girls were like: ”what are you doing, Mum? Don’t we have enough s**t going on in our lives? Why are you trying to bring in more?”

‘And I was like: ”Oh my God, yes. What am I doing? Why am I looking for people to save me all the time?”

Anna said her girls had been a huge support during her divorce. She told How to be 60: ‘I couldn’t have got through this without them. 

‘And maybe I’ve leant on them too much. My eldest daughter, who wears her heart on her sleeve, said to me: ”I just need you to be my mum.”

‘It made me feel awful. It literally stopped me in my tracks, because I was like: ”oh, my goodness, she’s so right. It’s not all about you.”

Kaye Adams: How to be 60 is available on all podcast providers.