INTERVIEW WITH Part Time working Mummy Aka: Rachaele Hambleton & Josh Marshall

Building a Blended Life with Love, Resilience, and Real Talk

“When I was five, my parents separated and my mum moved away. Our home changed overnight and it was tough for a long time—ten years, in fact—until I went into foster care at 15.”

Rachaele Hambleton, aka Part Time Working Mummy, is an inspirational mum of six. The incredible 43-year-old is a Sunday Times Bestselling Author—four times over—founder of The Patchwork House, a support and guidance service for vulnerable individuals and families, and she’s also a successful entrepreneur, which includes her own clothing brand REBL.

Rachaele’s career path exemplifies the spirit of determination, extraordinary strength, and grace. Known for her candid approach to both business and family life, she regularly shares insights into the realities of juggling professional ambitions with parental responsibilities.

Her husband, Josh Marshall, a policeman who’s currently on a career break to be able to support Rachaele, plays an integral part in their business ventures. Together, they have created a household where business and family coalesce, supporting each other’s ambitions while fostering a nurturing environment for their children. Josh’s expertise in operations and his steady support have been instrumental in the growth of their family’s enterprises. Both Rachaele and Josh are advocates for honest dialogue about the challenges and triumphs of modern parenting, making them the perfect fit for BROOD Magazine.

I met Rachaele and Josh a few years ago through Women’s Aid and have admired them as a couple ever since. There’s something extra special about watching someone who has suffered so much trauma go on to achieve such amazing things. It’s no wonder that Rachaele and Josh have such a loyal following—their authenticity and honesty are so refreshing and admirable. Their blended family is imperfectly perfect, endearing, and full of love. It was an absolute pleasure to join them in their family home for probably our most ‘BROOD-esque’ shoot to date, with their kids – Seb 19, Tallulah 16, Isaac 15, Edie 12, Wilby 6 (there is also, Betsy who’s 21 and currently living in Australia), and then chat with this wonderful couple about everything that’s brought them to where they are today, and all that they have achieved in between all the ups and downs.

Lolo: Rach, you have endured and overcome so much in your life, all of which has led you to where you are now. Can you tell us about your early years and when you first became a mum?

Rachaele: “My parents moved down from Manchester before I was born. I’ve got three older siblings, and we settled in a little village called Galmpton where we ran a B&B. When I was four, my parents separated and my mum moved away to Lincolnshire. Our home changed overnight, it went from a lovely, lush place to grow up to a horrible one. My dad very quickly moved in our neighbour, and it was extremely tough for a long time—ten years, in fact—until I went into foster care at 15. Linda, who you’ve met today, was my foster mum, and she’s amazing—she’s basically become an adopted nan to us now. Even with Linda’s support, I spiralled after years of trauma: drugs, alcohol, just making really bad choices. That’s why I’m so passionate about working with teenage girls now—it inspired Patchwork.

I was 19 when I got into my first abusive relationship, just two years younger than my daughter, Betsy, is now. Which is crazy to me, as she’s been living her best life on the other side of the world in Australia for almost a year with no plans to return – which makes me so happy – and I was trapped and broken by that age. He was almost ten years older, and he already had three young daughters, and I became a stepmum overnight. The relationship was violent from the start. I became a mum at 22, and we fled a lot, staying with friends and family members, and we went into a women’s refuge. I always went back—it felt impossible to leave when I was so young and didn’t have much support. During that time I fell pregnant again, with Lula. So I had two little girls, and it was really hard. Eventually, after a particularly violent incident at Christmas 2010, I knew I had to make the decision not to go back for my girls’ sake. It got to the point where everyone around me said they couldn’t support me anymore, and I knew the girls would probably have been taken out of my care as the situation was spiralling.”

“…we had a house full of five kids under ten. It was chaos! We always say we dated in reverse – thrown in at the deep end, always skint, working overtime, and dealing with ongoing court cases with both our exes.”

Lolo: That must have been so difficult to navigate as a young mother without any support. What happened at that point? As we know, domestic abuse doesn’t just stop because you’ve left.

Rachaele: “The post-separation abuse was horrific. Our car was keyed, tyres slashed, and if I dated anyone, he’d ruin their lives. Looking back, now that I’m out of it, I know the only reason I gave him contact with the girls was because I didn’t think I had any other option—I was terrified of the family court. The girls continued to see him for eight years after we separated. Within ten months of leaving him, I ended up in a rebound relationship. I had known the guy since school, it felt safe, like I knew he wouldn’t abuse me, and I also hoped it would end the abuse, but it didn’t. That relationship didn’t last, but I became pregnant very quickly, then had Edie.
When I met Josh, Edie was just a few months old. Josh had two little boys, I had my girls, and suddenly we had a house full of five kids under the age of ten. It was chaos. We always say we dated in reverse—thrown in at the deep end, always skint as I was left in so much debt by my ex, and always working to clear the debt and pay the bills”

Rachaele: “Josh’s ex-wife is really poorly. She’s an alcoholic, so that was a really awful time for us to navigate and know what was best to do. They were battling in the family court. You sold your marital home, didn’t you? But all of the equity from that was used to pay the family court bills so we could make sure the boys were in the best place”

Josh: “Yes, the first five years of our lives together were just dire, it was one thing after another. I even got arrested whilst working as a policeman. It was just awful”

Rachaele: “Yeah, Josh was arrested because his ex-wife made allegations. That was horrific. The police – just the way that they handled it. It made it worse that Josh was such an incredible policeman. We ended up suing them and receiving a payout. I honestly don’t know how we survived those first five years.”

Lolo: How did you get through it? What coping mechanisms helped during such a difficult period?

Josh: “Honestly, it was just our love for each other. That’s as simple as I can put it. We never thought about splitting up—we were just in it together.”

“I became a mum at 22, and we fled a lot, staying with friends and family members, and we went into a women’s refuge. I always went back—it felt impossible to leave when I was so young and didn’t have much support.”

Rachaele: “Yeah, we just kept going. I never look back and think we nearly broke up. We announced we were together on my birthday, and ten days later, Josh was arrested. It was devastating, but we just stuck together and kept going.”

Lolo: At what point did Part-Time Working Mummy become a thing in your lives, and where did the inspiration for it come from?

Rachaele: “In 2016, I was working full-time in Exeter, and every morning I drove over this bridge. And for years – 10 years – I watched this woman walk her kids to school. She had stunning curly, white blonde hair, and when I first started watching her, she had a little, excited golden retriever puppy and loads of little tiny kids. Some in a buggy and stuck to her chest, and I’d watched her over a space of 10 years. Then, at the end of it, the big ones weren’t there anymore – they were obviously at secondary school. The dog was really old, and it was walking slowly behind her. And so I just did an anonymous Facebook post on her page called ‘Spotted Torquay’ and I basically wrote her a letter. I wrote about how every morning I’ve driven past you for 10 years, and that she was an inspiration to me as she made me want to work less. I said, ‘I’m watching you raise your kids and I’ve realised that I don’t raise mine, they’re in breakfast club and after-school club’. And the post just went mental. This was obviously before influencing or anything. It went to like, China, America, it was wild!”

Josh: “You had like Good Morning Britain ringing you up and saying you’ve got to come on!”

Rachaele: “Yes, Good Morning Britain and This Morning – it was just insane! I drove to work the next day and all the press were camped on the bridge trying to get a look of this woman. She couldn’t even take her kids to school. They found out where she lived, it was crazy! And then there were loads of comments on the post saying whoever wrote this post should start blogging. The whole thing made me realise I wanted to work less, and so I started looking into blogging. Back then, there were only “mumsy” bloggers whose lives looked perfect. I said to Josh, “No one is like us—blended family, chaos, mess.” He said, “Loads of people don’t have their lives together.” So I started Part-Time Working Mummy and just began writing. My first big post went viral overnight. I remember Josh waking me up because I suddenly had nearly 100,000 followers. That gave me the confidence to share my story as a survivor of domestic abuse, and it just snowballed. By 2017, we had half a million followers.”

Lolo – That’s incredible. How did you go from blogging to writing your books – Sunday Times Bestsellers, no less!

Rachaele: “I got offered my first book deal and it went straight to the Sunday Times bestseller list – which was just unbelievable. Then influencing became a thing, and our first ad was for Tesco Mobile. It was so bad! We didn’t have a clue what we were doing, and we had to edit videos ourselves and teach ourselves everything. Back then, the money was huge because there weren’t many bloggers and influencing wasn’t wasn’t then a thing. We started earning really decent money, which we weren’t used to, which allowed us to move house and start building our businesses.”

Lolo: Your work for women who’ve experienced domestic abuse has been incredible. How did that start?

Rachaele: “After leaving my daughter’s father, I was left with nothing and burdened with his debt. We lived in poverty, struggling to make ends meet. I remember making do with hand-me-downs and scraping by. But in the midst of that darkness, I always thought if ever I had the financial means, I wanted to open a women’s centre. We opened The Patchwork House — first in a tiny space, now it’s in a three-storey building. We run a social supermarket, a free charity shop, and offer one-to-one support, trauma programmes, a domestic abuse course that I personally facilitate, and drop-in sessions. We fund it ourselves and through online raffles and merch sales. Our work is all about giving women what I needed when I had nothing. We wanted to create a safe space with essentials like food, internet and support. My experience just made me so passionate to help others.” Josh: “We funded a lot of it at the beginning ourselves, didn’t we? And then we started selling clothes and stuff like that to help generate more money. And then we started doing raffles and crowdfunding.”

“My first big post
went viral overnight, I
remember Josh waking
me up because suddenly
I had nearly 100,000
followers. That gave me
the confidence to share
my story as a survivor of
domestic abuse.”

Rachaele: “Yes, and we also started working with Women’s Aid and in family courts, giving talks about how I was failed by the system. Josh and I now sit on an advisory panel for Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service, helping to improve family courts for domestic abuse victims.”

Lolo: How have your children been affected and inspired by everything you’ve overcome?

Rachaele: “I think they’re really proud of us. They’ve seen us go through so much, but also turn it into something positive. Some of our kids have been through their own tough times, but we’re open with them and support them through it. Our parenting is all about honesty and communication.

We’ve learned from our mistakes and now, with the older ones, we can lean on them for advice when the younger ones make mistakes. It’s not always easy, but I think having a stable, open home has helped all our kids come through it.”

Lolo: You’re both parents to children with additional needs. What advice would you give to others navigating that journey?

Rachaele: “It’s tough. The system is broken, and it’s cruel. I’d say find your village—look for local support groups and connect with other parents who understand. I follow lots of Instagram pages that make me feel less alone. The system is broken, but you’re not alone.”

Josh: ”Focus on what your child is achieving, not just what they’re not getting. Celebrate their progress, however small. You can get consumed with the paperwork of EHCPs, etc and miss what they’re actually achieving”

Lolo: On top of everything, you have your clothing range, REBL. Where did the inspiration for that come from?

Rachaele: “I just love a comfortable tracksuit, and the tracksuits I was wearing were a fortune. I thought, “There must be a market for making mid-range tracksuits that last.” So, we just did it, and it’s been incredible so far!”

Josh: “Yeah, we’re lucky because we already had a customer base. We just hoped they’d like it. We didn’t know if it would work or not.”

Rachaele: “We didn’t know what we were doing! I just ordered a tracksuit and loved it, so I asked the girl who her supplier was. She gave me the info, and I contacted them. We had conversations, and the supplier said they’d love to work with us, so that’s what we did. We drop new stock every couple of months, which works well because there’s demand for limited-edition items that sell out. Josh pretty much runs REBL – it stands for Rach, Edie, Betsy, and Lula.”

Lolo: What advice would you give to anyone who’s experienced trauma but wants to achieve their dreams?

Rachaele: “Hypnotherapy really saved me, I don’t know where I’d be without that, but also having the right people around you is crucial. You need friends who truly want you to do well. Find your ride-or-die people—your sisterhood. Support and kindness go a long way. If you find those people, you can come through anything.”

Josh: “Cut out toxic people, even if they’re family. That might sound really anti-social of me, but it’s not, you have to put your own wellbeing and your family’s happiness first. It’s what happens here, in our family unit, that’s what matters most. That’s what I care about. Cutting out negativity has really improved our lives. And don’t lose sight of why you started, that can really help you to keep going”

Lolo: What’s been your biggest career highlight?

Rachaele: “Having four Sunday Times bestselling books, especially as someone who did badly at school and came from foster care and an abusive relationship. If you’d shown me my life now when I was 30, I’d have been amazed. I do feel proud of myself.”

Follow Us