EXCLUSIVE Professional homemaker who offers £200 workshops in cooking and cleaning has followers as young as 10 years old - but insists she's NOT a tradwife
A professional homemaker has revealed how she found global success among fans as young as 10 by teaching domestic skills - and why onlookers should never mistake her for a tradwife.
Charlie Gray's West Sussex countryside home she shares with her husband Simon and their three children is by no means in perfect order, but that's not her goal.
'It's about slowing down and taking the time to do small things that end up making you feel better if you've had a stressful day,' Charlie, 44, of Ask Charlie, told Femail.
Small things, she explained, include ditching microwave meals for homemade dishes, planning housework, and taking time to put household items in their rightful place rather than casting them aside after use.
Older generations may consider her tips basic. But, according to Charlie, the mother of Archie, 16, Coco, 15, and Gus, 14, society is witnessing a downward trajectory in home economics skills.
Evidence suggests similarly. Not only is there a takeaway boom, thanks to services like Deliveroo distracting Britons from home-cooked options, but a study by Mintel found 76 per cent of the nation's parents, with children aged 6 to 17, say that their offspring have zero cleaning responsibilities.
According to Charlie, the trend is resulting in individuals who are unable to adequately care for their homes due to a lack of life experience and education. That's where she steps in. 'I teach practical skills, cooking, running a home, making life easier. From batch cooking, to meal planning and organising your time.'
With her values and dedication to a relaxed home, people might be quick to label her a tradwife, but Charlie believes them to be wrong. 'I don't want to be associated with them at all. I run my own business. I have my own income. I pay taxes. So I'm not a tradwife.'
Charlie owes her homemaking skillset to her mother, who equipped her with the necessary skills to have a comfortable home life from an early age.
'I had an amazing mother who taught my brother and I how to do most things, and I grew up thinking that that was normal,' she said.
When she became a mother, her husband travelled for work, and so she sought outside help to ease her load of raising three children born consecutively over three years.
The influencer, who has more than 34,000 followers on Instagram, is married to husband Simon, 18 years her senior, whom she met while working as a secretary - she described him in an interview with The Telegraph last month as 'the most wonderful man I've ever met'.
His career, running a successful seafood business, has meant she is able to stay at home and care for the couple's children, Archie, Coco and Gus.
Charlie said, 'We didn't have any family that could come and help if there was a problem, or if I'd had a sleepless night. There wasn't anyone to call and say, 'Can you come and be an extra pair of hands?' So, we had an au pair.'
Though she didn't know it at the time, that hire would help spark her lightbulb moment for her business because she quickly realised that others didn't share her level of understanding regarding domestic skills.
'It was then that I realised that practical skills haven't been passed down through the generations like they used to be,' she said.
@askcharliehow
My sourdough masterclass, I have made it as easy as I possibly can to teach you how to make your own starter and bake sourdough bread at home, with very tutorials and the note that go with I take you step by step how to make wonderful loaves at home! The links on my bio #sourdoughbread #sourdoughstarter #sourdoughbaking #makeyourownsourdoughstarter #onlinecourse
♬ original sound - Charlie Gray
Charlie believes cooking skills dwindled in the late '70s when ready meals became a novelty in the UK. 'It was easy just to pop something in the oven that was frozen, and it was an exciting novelty.
'Now, there's a shift in society where people don't want ultra-processed food, people want to look after themselves. They want to know what they're eating, they don't want to eat rubbish, and so I think it's a circle back.'
By 2018, when her children were a little older, Charlie decided to act on her findings and launched Ask Charlie.
Explaining on her website, she writes, 'I am very aware that a lot of these practical skills that were passed down from parents have been lost over time. Without home economics lessons being taught anymore, I hope with Ask Charlie I can help.
With her booming social media accounts, where she shares her tips and tricks, comprehensive online courses, and a podcast, Charlie has helped thousands of people across the globe.
Many learn from her for free through social content, and she also offers online courses, starting from £5, as well as a course called Efficient Home, which runs over four weeks and costs £200.
Beneath the surface of teaching how to fold, iron, and bake, Charlie is teaching others how to find comfort in their surroundings.
She said, 'It's about finding what's important to you and what makes you feel comfortable in your home and your environment.
'The world is a crazy place. You listen to the news, and it's awful, and you need to have some comfort and security. Cooking and nurturing are that for a lot of people.
'I want to create. I don't want there to be controversy and angst, I just want people to feel safe and secure in their environment. So, it's a bit of escapism as well.'
The reception, Charlie said, has been 'amazing'.
'I get messages from people daily, saying, 'Thank you for sharing that. It's made life easier for me.' So, it's been really positive.'
Her client base is dotted around the globe, and she has younger generations soaking up her knowledge, such as how to make sourdough, and becoming fans.
'The youngest I'm aware of is 10,' Charlie said before recalling the time the child came up to her and said, 'I'm your biggest fan. I've watched all your videos. I love them, and I find you really inspiring.'
Charlie continued, 'Then I have a lady in Australia who is in her late seventies. It's really varied, and there's quite a few men as well.'
Closer to home, Charlie's children, Archie, Coco, and Gus, are also learning the ways of a smooth-running home from their mother.
'I get them involved,' Charlie said, adding, 'I think it's important as a parent that we can teach our children as much as possible, so they're ready when they fly the nest, and they can cook a meal, wash their clothes, and change a bed.
'It's very daunting when you leave home and go off to university, or a first job, or whatever it might be, if you don't know how to do things. So, I think it's about preparing them for the future.'
It's not just her children's future she's busy prepping for, but also her own. What that entails exactly, she can't yet reveal. But she assured Femail that a string of 'very exciting' projects are in the works.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Garden bathtubs are summer 2025's status symbol
Forget twizzling sausages on a Big Green Egg (the kamado-style ceramic barbecue typically costing north of £1,400). This summer's status symbol comes in the form of a bathtub in the garden. It's decidedly more low-key compared with its energy-hungry, sometimes gauche sister (the Jacuzzi), and garden bathing enthusiasts are embracing it year-round, whether opting for a Wim Hof-inspired cold plunge in a heatwave or enveloped in steam during deliciously hot soaks on chillier days. The ultimate in outdoorsy bathing comes courtesy of William Holland, whose Alvius bath was designed especially for the launch of Soho House's Babington House in Somerset in the late Nineties, its square-shaped aesthetic blending industrial chic with 19th-century French opulence. These tubs remain a signifier of Soho House style: you can spot them beside Lazy Lake at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire and also at its latest opening, Soho Farmhouse Ibiza. Corrosion-free and low-maintenance, William Holland's round metal tubs (in particular the £9,310 copper Rotundus model, which develops a beautiful patina with age) are a frequent fixture in projects by the interior designer Lisa Burdus, whose clients are demanding far more than a bath plonked next to a compost bin. 'There is nothing bland when it comes to my clients' outdoor wellness spaces — they want carefully considered areas that blend in with pops of vibrant colours,' Burdus says. The key, she explains, is the view. 'Showers, saunas and baths that have views across the Cotswold valleys are the wellness design trend of the summer.' The style set are smitten. At Trematon Castle in Cornwall, the House of Hackney co-founders Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle enjoy being 'ensconced in nature' in an antique restored French tub painted pea green. At her holiday cottage on the edge of the Sandringham Estate, the interior designer Jolene Marshall describes her £3,597 double-sided tin bath from Indigenous as 'an antidote to city life'. Splish-splashing outdoors triggers something primal — perhaps stirring an early-years memory of paddling-pool nostalgia — but there's also something undeniably sexy about a lo-fi soak under the moon. Since Bee Osborn (the creative director of the Chipping Norton-based Osborn Interiors) installed a bath hidden behind a hessian curtain in her garden three years ago, she's been one of the forerunners who made the trend mainstream and remains inundated with requests from clients (and her 240,000 Instagram devotees) to replicate the look in their own homes. 'This was a not-too-expensive way to create an intimate romantic space,' she says. • How to build an outdoor bathroom: add a splash of luxury to your garden She uses reclaimed scaffolding boards to build open-sided bath houses 'to create a rustic look, with loads of candles. It feels much more fun and sophisticated than a hot tub, which you associate with four or five people and a bottle of prosecco in an Airbnb.' And unlike a hot tub, there's no requirement for treating the water with chemicals either, meaning the bathwater can be drained into a soak and re-used to water the garden. When filled with ice, they also serve as handy bottle-chilling devices during particularly large summer soirees, as the Cotswolds resident Victoria Spooner discovered at her 40th birthday bash. Alice Sykes, a fashion and interiors PR representing Artfully Walls and Cath Kidston's geranium-scented line, is also part of the Cotswolds contingent. 'I've always been interested in clever artistic ways to improve spaces, and my garden bath is the best thing about my home,' Sykes says. 'It's literally an old plastic bath we were chucking out when renovating the spare bathroom. I fill it with water from the hose and two minutes in there in the morning or evening or during a hot weekend, or on a cold winter day, is bliss. It's the same hit as pond swimming, without having to leave your garden. It makes you feel alive.' • £50k, and solid quartz — welcome to the era of the mega-bathtubs As for going au naturel or in swimwear, the Cotswolds interiors stylist Emily Mellor insists, 'Nudity is absolutely essential for bathing in the garden.' Mellor found her 'bloody heavy' freestanding cast-iron number on eBay for 99p via an estate house clearance. 'My husband was cursing me every step of the way but the result of that is a lovely bath in the veg patch that we can bathe in next to the tomatoes and whisper sweet nothings as they blush at our naked bottoms.' An underground pipe feeds the tub with hot and cold water ('really worth it on slightly chilly evenings — having a hot bath outside is just such a treat'), and Mellor heartily recommends bubbles, flowers from the garden and wine as accoutrements for an evening soak. This is not an isolated trend for the country set, nor is it a solo endeavour but increasingly a wellness-tinged social ritual. Take Kate Goodrich, an artist and gardener from London, who nabbed her cast-iron Victorian bath on eBay for £40, calling a cold-water dip straight from the hosepipe 'a place of escape and total calm — water, nature, birds and trees overhead — not forgetting moon bathing. The garden bath is used all year round and has become the favourite spot in our garden. Friends come round for a cool dip — a Parisian pal now has her own garden bath. It's a cooling sanctuary that also waters the plants.' Tucked away from neighbourly eyes under the branches of an evergreen magnolia grandiflora, Goodrich has 'strategically placed' potted evergreen bamboo and Phormium tenax for total privacy. After a cycle commute to Hackney from her studio where she makes large scale botanical works using cameraless photography techniques, or a long gardening job, there's nothing better than jumping in the cold and being outdoors, she says. 'It transports me away from London feelings to tropical settings instead. Keep a towel close to hand for a discreet exit!' Mark Shaw, an architect who scooped a Riba London 2025 award for his Walthamstow home built on the site of a former MoT garage earlier this year, has followed a different direction with his sunken outdoor bath, taking cues from hotels in Thailand and Japanese onsens. • Read more expert advice on property, interiors and home improvement 'I didn't have space for an en suite bathroom in the 100 sq m property and I thought, why don't I really blur those boundaries between inside and out?' explains the founder of the Studioshaw practice. 'Water for me is like therapy, but I hate hot tubs. I wanted [the bath] to be really simple and relaxing — and big enough for two people.' So Shaw designed the bath as a stainless-steel box, which he had made bespoke by the fabricator who built his kitchen, and plumbed in hot and cold water. It's shaded by the huge, deeply lobed leaves of the rice-paper tree (Tetrapanax papyrifer 'Rex') planted on the advice of the landscape gardener Charlie Hawkes for bathing bliss in London's zone 3.@kate_goodrich_studio James Brown on his unexpected garden haven, which offers a surprisingly relaxing retreat under the stars Sometimes it takes seeing great things that others have to appreciate what you already have yourself. I recently saw an indoor sauna in an outdoor garden office that was so ergonomically designed, it folded into its surroundings, almost invisible to the passer-by. The office was quite something — great shape, obviously, interestingly clad, view out to the sea but, most notably, the piles of papers and shelves of box files all smelt of sauna. In a nice way. Heading home, I was so impressed that I phoned my girlfriend to discuss the possibility of having an outdoor sauna myself and, before you know it, my Instagram timeline was full of saunas. I'd quickly worked out where I would put it in my shingle garden: in the corner just below the outdoor bath. And then it struck me. What the hell did I need a sauna for when I have an outdoor bath? A fast-filling, instant-hot-and-cold, two-steps-across-the-back-deck-from-my-shower-room outdoor bath. I went home that night, filled it to the very top and spent three hours in it until just gone midnight. The pin-pricked sky stretched out above — no light pollution over Rye Bay, East Sussex, just years and years of stars above. Did it get cold? No, never, because as I said, you can constantly refill it with very hot water. About ten years ago it occurred to me that, given all that was beneath the bath was decking and shingle, it was essentially an infinity bath — I could fill it to overflowing, fully submerged, and that's something you can't do in an indoor bath. Even more relaxing. • The unstoppable rise of the outdoor bath The bath was there when I bought the place. I realised at some point that, before then, it had lived in the back bedroom because there was a round hole under the bed where an outflow pipe must have been. I don't know whose idea the outdoor bath was but it was at least 19 years ago so they were well ahead of the times. It's a white Victorian-style bath with a horizontal surround and two basic brass taps screwed into a piece of driftwood that's fixed to the wooden handrail surrounding the corners of the back deck. When I first arrived that's all there was, but since then I've enclosed it with large dimpled French garden tubs full of mint and lavender, and there's an elderflower bush that's grown up the frame around it. Behind the tubs there's a row of dense evergreens that divides my house from that of my neighbours, Billy and Alison. It's close enough for me to hear them chatting and gardening but thick enough for them to not have to witness me getting in and out. For quite a long time, when the assorted bushes lost their leaves and flowers, I'd lean down, scoop them all out and throw them into the foot of the trees. Then one day I realised: 'Mint, lavender, elderflower, evergreens … this is basically what it says on the side of plastic bottles full of bathroom products.' I was chucking out what people normally pay for in their brightly coloured, gloopy, chemically enhanced versions and since then I haven't bothered any more. The fragrance adds to the experience. You can bring some hot water in a cup and then just pull off some huge fresh mint leaves for tea. I leave it on the bathside table with books, towels, laptop. • Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts I've spent a lot of time in there watching football matches, reading books and thinking about writing them. And with a pile of books on a chair stationed a foot or so away, there's enough shade for the screen to be very clear. Because I rent the house out when I'm not there, the outdoor bath has become a talking point and it's often mentioned as something new guests' friends have told them about. A couple of guys who stayed have since moved in down the lane and recreated it in their own back garden, and of course guests have posted lots of photographs of it. One couple sent a shot of them both in it celebrating an anniversary, another lady sent me her whole family in it and a third guest kindly posted a picture of her drying her dog in it with my favourite Paul Smith towel, which someone had bought me for my birthday. To make it even more private I recently closed one end off with a woven hazel panel, which pretty much makes it an outdoor bathroom now, just with no roof. It's two steps away from the real bathroom, which has a great shower but no bath. No one has ever come round when I'm in it and I can't really think of anywhere more relaxing to soak. I've sadly never been there when it's snowing but you can't have everything. Or can you? Run two taps, climb in and you're away, no infrared cabin in sight.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
All the ways Love Island's Shaughna Phillips hid her HUGE baby bump while flaunting six-stone weight loss
THESE are all the ways Love Island's Shaughna Phillips hid her huge baby bump. The ITV2 personality flaunted her six-stone weight loss while keeping her pregnancy a secret. 8 8 8 Shaughna, 31, recently revealed that she was expecting her second child. This was after she made her happy news public on Instagram, shortly after stripping to her underwear and opening up on her six stone weight loss. However, she used various ways of hiding her growing abdomen in posts on social media over the last few months. In one video on her grid page, she promoted the Musera range on SHEIN. In the first part of the video, she covered up in a long silk pyjama top, before changing into various more glam two-piece outfit. Despite a hint of her midriff, she tried to conceal the majority of her bump using a gold clutch bag, which she held in front. The former reality personality also posted weight loss videos that were twinned with throwback videos to throw fans off the scent. A side by side comparison showed Shaughna looking unrecognisable from her former self in an orange two-piece swimsuit. Other photos on her Instagram page have showed her sporting baggy clothes, which included a yellow co-ord that completely covered her stomach. As her bump got bigger over recent days, she also posted more weight loss snaps in the form of head shot pictures to avoid revealing her whole body. Shaughna Phillips hits back at she's accused of using weight loss jabs after revealing 5 stone body transformation The TV star first rose to fame when she featured in Love Island 's sixth season, the first in Winter to be held in South Africa. She gave birth to her first child in 2023 and will now expand her brood, gushing her eldest will be the "best big sister." In addition to the reveal on Instagram, she has dished the detail on her expanding family and her due date. After the post which saw two of her pregnancy tests show positive - she explained to MirrorOnline: "We're so happy to announce we are adding to our little family," Adding: "Lucia is going to be the best big sister and is really excited to have a new baby brother or sister arrive later this year." 8 8 8 8
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
My fiance lost six stone on fat jabs but secret sex side effect forced me to take drastic action in the bedroom
CRAIG Cooper's relentless advances are met with an exhausted sigh from his fiancee Kayla Goodearl as she nestles deeper into the sofa cushions. 'Not tonight, please,' the mum-of-six groans, dodging his eager attempts. 5 5 But social media manager Craig's newfound ' Mounjaro Mojo ' — a turbocharged libido sparked by his astonishing six-stone weight loss — is relentless. The bedroom has become a battleground of desire versus exhaustion, where a temporary sex ban — initiated by stay-at-home mum Kayla, 35 — was the only thing standing between them and chaos. 'It had to be done, it was driving me crazy,' says Kayla, from Rochester, Kent. 'The weight-loss jabs had got him pumped up and he now has a superman libido. 'It was like he was taking daily doses of Viagra, so I had to put him on a sex ban so I could catch up with him. 'His new mojo was initially fun. 'But having to be a full-time mum to six kids, while having a super-active sex life became exhausting.' Before Craig, 42, started taking the Mounjaro jabs, the couple's sex life had dipped dramatically due to having two babies under two. 'Our youngest child is 14 months, and we also have a two-year-old daughter, so we're constantly running around, plus they are co-sleeping with us,' says Kayla, who also has four children of her own. 'They want mine and Craig's attention at all times, so our sex life took a nose dive. Weight Loss Jabs - Pros vs Cons 'We would have high hopes at the beginning of the day, but as the hours passed sex became the last thing on my mind.' When the pair first met back in January 2022, they enjoyed regular sex — but that soon felt like a long distance memory. She says: 'Before our two kids, I would say we had a healthy sex life and did it around once a week, maybe twice. "But having such young kids kept us busy, while also taking up most of our energy. 'Of course at the time, I would wish for it to be better as we would go weeks — sometimes even two months — without doing the deed, and that thought would always be at the back of my mind. 'I didn't want things to fizzle out, but naturally the kids took all my time up.' But when Craig began taking Mounjaro in December last year things quickly changed. The decision to start the jabs came after he reached 20st and, at 5ft 2in, had a BMI of 51.4, making him morbidly obese and at risk of type two diabetes and heart disease. 'I soon realised I needed to be careful of what I wished for,' she says. 'Since he has taken on Mounjaro, Craig's libido has the activation button on at all times. 'I COULDN'T KEEP UP' 'He asks for it morning, noon and night. But I've got six kids. 'Where does he think I find the time? "'At first I didn't think much of it, I thought it was more that he had this new-found confidence. 'It was exhilarating and it really did reignite the spark between us — it was like we were teenagers all over again. 'It could be anywhere in the house. 'In the laundry room, the bathroom or even the kitchen, you name it, he wanted it there. 'Sometimes we have guests over, or the kids are in the house and he wants a quickie. 'Don't get me wrong, I love his new body — and the attraction is certainly there but I couldn't keep up. 'I would never get anything done if I hadn't put the sex ban in place. 'Four months down the line, in March, I had no other option but to ban Craig from the bedroom and make him sleep on the sofa. 'I also felt that soon enough we were going to get caught by one of the kids.' 'Initially he was gobsmacked. 'Then he groaned that I didn't understand. His increased libido combined with his body going completely 'off script' put me off sex even more Kayla Goodearl 'I stood my ground and, he realised: happy wife, happy life. And I needed space.' A new study from Lloyds Pharmacy reveals that over three-quarters of people say their body image affects their sex drive, rising to 82 per cent for women. Interestingly, 30 per cent of respondents discussed how weight loss improved their libido, with an equal amount commenting on their improved confidence and self-esteem, as well as increased energy levels, and improved relationship dynamics. Dr Tom Curtis, Clinical Head of Obesity at weight-loss programme Voy, says that it's not uncommon for patients taking weight-loss medications such as Mounjaro to report an increase in their sex drive. 'It's usually as a result of the weight loss itself rather than a direct effect of the medication,' he explains. 'Significant weight loss can have a powerful effect on confidence, self-image, and energy levels, all of which can reignite desire and intimacy. 'Biologically, there are also benefits. 'In men, weight loss can improve testosterone levels and blood flow. 'In women, it can help rebalance hormones such as oestrogen and insulin, which may improve mood and sexual responsiveness.' More typical side effects include nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhoea, stomach upset, heartburn and even hair loss. 'Craig had a tsunami of side effects, from Mounjaro moodiness, to constipation, farting, diarrhoea and bad breath,' Kayla explains. 'His increased libido combined with his body going completely 'off script' put me off sex even more. 5 Craig says: 'The jab has the same effect on me as taking Viagra - I used it once as a laugh and it was great. 'Imagine wanting sex constantly but everything is preventing it. 'At times I wanted to cry but I just had to laugh. 'I couldn't even get a snog from the missus. 'The jabs got me all pumped up and Kayla had had enough, so I understand it can get tiring for her. 'No one tells you about the secret Viagra-like effect of the jabs. 'I was hot to trot but Kayla was not.' A new study published in Andrologia, a research journal focusing on male infertility and sexual disorders, has confirmed that weight loss, particularly in obese or overweight individuals using weight-loss jabs, leads to improved erectile function. This is attributed to better cardiovascular health, reduced inflammation, and increased testosterone levels. This finding comes despite some men reporting erectile dysfunction while using these jabs. Craig pays £160 a month for his private prescription, and noticed changes in his weight in the first week, he lost five inches around his belly. Now, six months in, he has lost more than a third of his body weight and tips the scales at 14st 8lb. As well as a change to their sex life, Kayla has also noticed the family's food bill halved to £100 a week and Craig seems more focused. She says: 'That is also another plus from the jabs. 'I used to send Craig to the shops for milk, eggs and nappies and he'd come back with chocolate, crisps and unhealthy snacks and forget the milk and nappies. 'Now his memory is amazing, and he only eats salads and healthy lean meats.' He says: 'I feel amazing having lost more than a third of my body weight. 'I have more energy, I am no longer vague, and feel sexier than I ever have.' Craig isn't sure how long his 'Mounjaro Mojo' side effect will last for, but the pair are now learning to live with it — and last month, the sex ban was lifted. Kayla felt energised enough to get back into the bedroom, and the bonking had begun again — up to six times a week. She says: 'I have gone from zero to a hero between the sheets.' 'I did miss sleeping with him,' Kayla says. 'I fancy my new-look Craig more than ever. 'It's tiring, but it's been a huge reboot to our sex life and who would want to let that go? 'If I am in the mood, five to six times a week is great. 'But half a dozen kids at home means we have to plan when to have sex. 'So, when the school run is over and the little ones are napping, we enjoy a quickie.' Craig adds: 'The best thing is I have my mojo back. 'Our sex life is better than ever. 'From no sex to sex six times a week. 'It's so great I may need a lie down.'
