‘I carry a level of sadness’: Anneka Rice makes candid admission about life, and the ‘brooding black dog’ she hopes her loved ones avoid

Anneka Rice is known to many, and will be remembered for the 80s and 90s juggernaut TV shows Treasure Hunt, and Challenge Anneka.

Sprinting around in her iconic, bright jumpsuits, and racing around the country in her huge blue lorry, the presenter brought both chaos and a sense of community into millions of homes through her shows.

However, Anneka maintains that the person viewers came to know and love was just a persona. Really named 'Annie,' the presenter tells The Times that Anneka is "a better version of myself."

She calls her alter ego "a whirlwind of community action who will leave no stone unturned - not the 'Annie Rice' who likes to go to bed at 8.30pm and is riddled with self-doubt."

In another candid admission, the presenter reveals that she's always struggled with her mood, although maintains she isn't depressed. She's tried therapy, but says it didn't work.

"I think I just carry with me a level of sort of sadness as a human being," she explains. Referring to how she feels as "an inherent sadness," Anneka says, "I’ve just always known that other people seem to skip through life in a merry old way and I seem always to be taking an old suitcase around with me."

Growing up with an unhappy mother, she believes those feelings "seeped" into her, and she's done everything to avoid passing on that sadness to those around her.

"I haven’t exorcised all my demons in my lifetime, but I am confident my loved ones are living without a brooding black dog on their shoulders," she says.

Anneka stepped away from the spotlight completely in 1995, and reveals a big contributing factor to this decision.

Going through a divorce at the time, and a mum to three boys, a letter from her soon to be ex-husband's lawyer changed everything.

It implied "she was a bad mother for working," which she says were not her ex-husband's words but "legal banter."

"It wasn’t that my children would be taken from me, because obviously I was their carer. It was just the fear that I wasn’t being 100 per cent the right mother" she explains.

She continues, "I did it with a feeling of where I was in the world, very content in my position. I was truly content and I enjoyed motherhood."

Refusing to look back on the decision and give it any more thought, Anneka shares that amid the sadness and path her life ended up taking because of that letter, she has one "absolute reason for life" - her grandchildren.

"I think of myself as a granny above all," she says of her four grandchildren, concluding, "I hope I am a friend to many and a mentor too."