Meet the family! Ant Anstead introduced girlfriend Renée Zellweger to his eldest two children over the phone before they saw each other in person.
The motor specialist, 42, called the 52-year-old actress’ first in-person interaction with Amelie, 18, and Archie, 15, “really lovely” while speaking exclusively to Us Weekly on Tuesday, January 18, about his show Radford Returns.
“They’d had a chance to meet many, many times on FaceTime,” the England native, who is also the father of son Hudson, 2, with ex-wife Christina Haack, explained. “So it wasn’t a case of, ‘Hey, here’s someone new.’ It was all very organic. … It was really nice. They came for three weeks. We just switched off and made sure we spent time together. It was amazing.”
The reality star noted that his teenagers, who he shares with ex Louise Anstead, can “sense” whether he’s “happy or not” in a relationship, explaining, “Nobody knows you better than your children. … They’re my kids. They’re part of my DNA. You can’t fake it with your kids.”
Us confirmed in June 2021 that Ant was dating Zellweger, nine months after he and Haack, 38, called it quits. When it comes to proposing to the Judy star, the Wheeler Dealers host told Us on Tuesday that an engagement is “absolutely not” on his mind. “What’s the rush?” he asked.
As for Amelie and Archie’s own dating lives, “nothing is off topic” between the teens and their dad.
“I have a real honest and open relationship with all my children, particularly the older ones,” the car builder told Us. “We have a WhatsApp group, which is titled Best Friends because that’s what we are. We talk like best friends. I treat them like adults. No topic is off [the table]. Over the years, my children and I have had conservations that are serious, talking about life and dating and stuff. … My kids approach me all the time about advice and that stands testament to the type of relationship I have with them.”
While the For the Love of Cars alum isn’t putting “pressure” on his kids to follow in his footsteps, his eldest “definitely has an interest” in the entertainment industry. Anstead doesn’t “push his kids on camera,” but they may make an appearance in Radford Returns.
The former police officer called the show the “real” deal, explaining to Us, “The show chronicles our small team of building, designing and launching a supercar, which is hard. And at the same time, we are setting up a startup business. So we have all the normal startup business problems, and of course we all have our own lives to deal with as well.”
Radford Returns premieres on Discovery+ Saturday, January 22.
With reporting by Diana Cooper