Sometimes the plans we make in life don't always go as we want them to, and this seems to be the case for former Dancing with the Stars professional dancer, Emily Barker.
After leaving DWTS, Emily pivoted into real estate in the UK and devoted more of her time to her fitness business Mad Hot Fit and decided to up sticks with her partner, Olly Ashton and move to Ireland.
At the start of the year, the couple packed their bags and brought their dogs to live on an island off the coast of Ireland.
However, three months later, it looks like the dancer will be making a return to the UK.
Letting her followers in on their plans, she said, 'Not sure exactly how to word this… but our move to Ireland didn’t quite go to plan… or maybe it was everything it was meant to be AND SO MUCH MORE!'
Admitting she had been keeping things to herself lately, she revealed all on her social media this week.
'Throughout the whole of 2024 we knew we wanted to move from the UK to Ireland… basically because we love Ireland, I lived there for 6 years on DWTS and my company, the team and all our clients are based there. So we put the plans in place, found a gorgeous little cottage in Wexford and put down a deposit, secured tenants for our home here in the UK and began to pack our whole lives into my little fiat 500 (Ollys car broke 2 weeks before the move and had to have a full new gear box… just the start of the twists in this eventful story)'
'Two weeks before the move (just before Christmas) we got an offer we just couldn’t refuse. A contact we knew sent us an application knowing we were already moving to Ireland and it was for a couple to live and work on a remote island off the coast of Ireland'
After being accepted for the job she said both Olly and Emily thought 'As we both run remote businesses, we thought… What could go wrong!? Just us … 19 wild horses, 2 border collies and Nancy and Ralphy of course.'
Looking back on her journey, she said 'The first few weeks were like no other, sunsets and sunrises from every angle, a private beach, all the freedom in the world and click and collect food shops to be collected from mainland every 3 weeks by boat (if you didn’t buy your Prosecco in advance … Friday night is going to be pretty boring) Oh and storm Eowyn was mad - power cuts and torches!!!'
'We did 3 AMAZING months on this incredible island and then decided to re-emerge back into society… We have since moved back to the UK for some time to debrief and collect our thoughts after the most crazy adventure of our lives.'
Making their way back to the UK, Emily said 'Who knows if we will ever move back to Ireland but for now I have the most incredible memories from a three month trip of a lifetime!'
Looking ahead, she said 'My vision board for 2025 definitely didn’t include feeding horses, patrolling around acres of land and driving Gators … but I’m so happy we did it!!'
