Photography by Monty Adams
When it comes to sliding door moments, most of us can name a few occasions in life where a seemingly inconsequential action has ended up defining and shaping us in ways we never could have imagined. It might be that last-minute invitation we accepted, a job applied for on a whim or the seat randomly chosen on the bus that led to an unforgettable turning point.
For supermodel-turned yoga teacher Rachel Hunter, it wasn’t the decision to try modelling as a teen or the chance encounter with a rock star who would later become her husband that would be her greatest sliding door moments – although they were certainly significant steps in the journey. Instead, it was a hot yoga class 15 years ago that set her path in an entirely new and awe-inspiring direction.
“My only thought when I decided to give yoga a go was that I hoped it might help my back pain,” says the iconic Kiwi from her home in Los Angeles. “I had no idea it would become such a pivotal part of my life.”
Back then, Rachel was a busy mum of two children, navigating solo parenting after the end of her marriage to Sir Rod Stewart and juggling her hugely successful modelling career that saw her grace the covers of the world’s most prestigious fashion magazines.
While the ancient practice of yoga certainly did help the back pain, it wasn’t until she visited India for the first time with her Tour of Beauty television show some years later that she discovered the true depth of what yoga could offer. Now, Rachel is an in-demand yoga teacher with over 500 hours of yogic training under her belt. She has certifications in various forms of yoga, meditation and tantra, and also leads life-changing retreats around the globe. The Trumpet Girl has well and truly found her place.
“Yoga for me is so much more than a physical practice – the effect on the mind-spirit is phenomenal. And almost as soon as I walked into the yoga studio, I remember feeling a little bit intimidated but also curious. Compared to the gym environments I was used to, it felt serene. There was a warmth, calming music and an atmosphere of acceptance and non-judgement. I knew it was a nurturing kind of space, a real sanctuary. It’s amazing to think it’s 15 years since then. From doing a few classes here and there to becoming a teacher – what a journey!”
Rachel is a deeply spiritual person, yet it would be a mistake to assume her years in America and immersion in Indian culture has meant she’s lost that quintessential Kiwi down-to-earthness. She hasn’t – she’s as relaxed and humble as ever as she chats to The Weekly. She’s recently returned home after a wonderful few weeks in Europe. The highlight of her trip was watching her son Liam, 29, marry Nicole Artukovich in a spectacular Croatian wedding. More on that later though, for now, Rachel is simply enjoying a rare stint at home before she packs her bags again.
This month, she’s heading to New Zealand and Australia for a series of yoga and meditation events, before spending two months in her beloved India.
While this international lifestyle might sound exhausting to some, Rachel has had decades to get used it. Ever since she moved to New York after being signed with the elite Ford modelling agency at age 17, she’s split her time between several countries. Exploring new places and absorbing all she can about other cultures never loses its thrill. She even loves spending time on planes and in transit.
“I love airports, especially exotic ones!” she enthuses. “It’s the smells, the sights and there’s just such a tapestry of humanity in there.”
And now her children Renee, 32, and Liam have grown up. They are leading their own lives, and Rachel’s concept of home has changed. In 2020, just before the start of the Covid pandemic (during which Rachel was locked down in India for five months), she sold the big family home in LA and moved into a one-bedroom apartment in the same complex as her sister Jacqui. It was a time of huge transition.
“You have to honour these changes in life, but it’s confronting at first,” she admits. “When I sold the family house, it was a bit like, ‘I don’t have a home any more. I don’t have the kids’ bedrooms and what about the big family dinners we had?’ But then I reminded myself that this is part of the natural progression of life. The kids are adults now, they have their own lives and I have mine. So I think we have to honour the changes and embrace them.”
But she admits lately she’s been thinking about what the concept of “home’” means for her, and she’s come to realise she’s able to create a sense of home in many different places. Her daily rituals are entirely portable, she says with a smile. Each day starts with yoga and meditation. Her favourite oil – sandalwood – goes with her wherever she roams. The family Whatsapp group chat also means she never feels far from the people she loves – even if they’re dotted around the world.
“I’ve really moved away from that conventional sense of home being just one place. I realise that I feel like I’m home in lots of different places. America is my home because I’ve spent my entire adult life here. But so is New Zealand because it’s my birthplace. But I also feel at home when I’m cooking my kids’ dinner at their places, and I feel at home in my little house with all my philosophy and yoga books, my clothes in the wardrobe and the pictures of the kids on the walls. And then, of course, there’s India, where I am deeply connected to as well.”
Rachel wouldn’t change her nomadic lifestyle, but she acknowledges there are hard parts to being away a lot. Last year, she had the heart-breaking experience of losing her beloved dog Babee while she was in India. The 12-year-old Pomeranian had fallen ill and Rachel had to make the call for him to be put down from afar.
“Babee was blind and deaf, and I think he had dementia at the end. He was walking around in circles, and he had diabetes and pancreatitis too,” says Rachel. “It was terrible, but I’m just so thankful my sister was with him at the end.”
The loss has hit her hard, though. “He really was my handsome little baby – he was like my third child. I miss him. Animals are so wonderful. When you’re a child, pets are often our first teachers. They’re a child’s first love relationship, they teach us so much about caring and loving. It’s an unconditional love.”
While daughter Renee, a talented dancer and yoga teacher like her mum, lives in London, Rachel is delighted that Liam and his little family are back in LA after several years in the UK. She’s mindful of being an overbearing grandmother – “I’m not turning up on their doorstep every day!” – but spending time with one-year-old Louie is one of her greatest joys.
“Yesterday he was here and we were down on the floor, playing with pots, pans and spoons. We have a great time together. He’s such a gorgeous boy.”
And she’s still buzzing after Liam and Nicole’s stunning wedding in Dubrovnik on May 31, a week-long extravaganza of glitz, glamour and love. Photos shared on social media gave followers a tantalising glimpse into this modern family. Rachel says it was wonderful to be reunited with people she hadn’t seen in years, including Rod’s wife Penny Lancaster, with whom she gets on well.
“We hadn’t seen each other for ages, so it was really amazing to all catch up. We had the best time together,” she tells. “It was fantastic.”
She says that witnessing her son marry was a special milestone. She shed tears as she walked Liam into the stunning cathedral and says the ceremony was emotional and beautiful. “It was the perfect representation of their love.”
Being mum to adult children and becoming a grandmother is a special new chapter in her parenting journey. But letting go and allowing them the space to make their own decisions has been a big learning experience.
“No matter how old my kids are, they’ll always be about 10 years old in my eyes. When you’re a mum, you never stop being a mother,” she reflects. “But I’ve never been someone who is chasing the best friend relationship with her kids. That sounds great, but ultimately, I think you’re still going to need to be their mother. Of course there’s a deep friendship there and we have a tonne of fun. There’s always so much laughter when we’re all together as a family.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is the importance of stepping back. Letting them have their own life, and making their own decisions. When I see how beautifully Liam and Nicole are bringing up Louie, and when I see Renee travelling and becoming her own person, it’s just incredibly gratifying. You realise you don’t need to be saying, ‘Oh, but you should be doing this or that.’ They’re making their own paths.”
And it’s clear she’s incredibly proud of them both.
“Renee is so wise and such an incredible yoga teacher, and she’s got great values. And it’s the same with Liam – he’s very steadfast and strong, and is very wise and funny.”
Our Rachel has learned a lot over the years. She can point to some pivotal moments that have affected her deeply. But it’s the death of her beloved mother Jeneen Phillips in 2017 after an 18-month battle with cancer that was the biggest turning point of her life. It’s the moment when she knew she had to return to India to process the grief.
And it was during this time that she decided to undertake yoga training, to immerse herself into the practice and philosophy of yoga.
Seven years might have passed, but Rachel admits the loss of her mother still feels raw. “I sometimes think, ‘Where are you? Like where did you actually go?’ I know that sounds almost immature saying that, but it’s that sense of ‘You were just here and now you’re gone.’”
Rachel has spoken in the past about her mother’s confession that her biggest regret in life was not feeling able to truly be herself.
Explains Rachel, “She said, ‘I regret not being fully who I am, always worrying what will people think, what will people say.’ My grief became a real journey of inspiration for me. It made me face up to those big questions, like, ‘Who am I and what do I want to do? And what do I regret about myself?’ I’m not living for my mother. However, I’m constantly inspired by her and asking myself, ‘Am I being who I am and need to be?’”
Since then, Rachel has been determined to live honestly and authentically in Jeneen’s honour.
“I used to think that if I talked about my spirituality, people might think I was weird or something. But I need to be me and I need to break the cycle of worrying about what others think. I need to keep evolving. To be in that restful, stable state of not creating anxiety about who I am or where I’m going. It’s about being grounded, being strong and saying what I want.”
She is a huge believer in living in the present and taking the time to just “be” rather than constantly thinking ahead to the future, which is so often outside of our control.
“Of course there are the practicalities that none of us can avoid, like paying the bills and planning trips or meals or preparing for visits from the kids, and I’m not undermining that stuff. But for me, it’s about being in an everyday state of ‘being’. And it’s probably the hardest thing that anybody can do, because we’re constantly thinking ahead. But actually, looking ahead all the time can create anxiety. When you’re constantly thinking, ‘I need to do this, I need to do that’, it can lead to some very unhelpful thinking.”
This is all part of what Rachel describes as her “spiritual evolution”.
“It’s about creating that space where you can make grounded, fundamental decisions using your so-called intuition, that natural thing we all basically have, and making decisions from that point on a day-to-day basis. But when you’re doing this, the state of flow starts happening in your life because you’re like a river. You just keep going and it’s a beautiful thing. But the reality is, our conditioning and experiences sometimes interrupt the flow. I’m in a total flux, I’m constantly working on that. I am not in that present state of being all the time.”
Rachel, who turns 55 on September 8, is sanguine about getting older. Having come through the challenges of perimenopause that so many women face – hot flushes, uncomfortable bloating and mood swings – she’s out the other side and feeling better than she has in years. Daily yoga, meditation and a healthy diet keep her well and balanced.
“I know some people are sensitive over the word ‘ageing’, but I don’t mind. I mean, we’re all ageing, so there you go,” she says candidly. “For me, ageing means wisdom and acceptance. And right now, I guess I’d say I’m uncomfortably comfortable with where I am. Obviously there are certain positions or lighting that I get into where my neck can kind of crinkle more or whatever. But to be honest with you, it’s all so personal and you have to do you.”
And now, as she prepares to pack her bags for her next series of events and retreats, she can’t wait to share her journey, learning and love of India with more people. But don’t expect her to take any credit for the life-affirming transformations that so often occur as participants discover the joy of yoga and meditation.
“I will never take any credit because it’s these people who are the ones who come in, accept, want to be a part of it and all of a sudden, they choose to let stuff go,” says Rachel. “I feel like I’m a student in their room too, because the whole time during retreats, you’re constantly learning. It’s a reciprocal kind of arrangement. It’s this beautiful dance that just kind of happens. It makes me so happy to see other people happy.”
Fifteen years on from that sliding door moment, when Rachel decided to give her first yoga class a go, she still can’t quite believe where the practice has taken her and what it has brought to her life. She never would have believed she would end up teaching the craft or leading retreats, but she’ll be forever grateful.
“I learned very early that yoga has very little to do with how high you can get your leg up over your head and a lot more to do with honouring your body. The physical practice is creating a seat for you to stabilise within your own self. You’re getting your body ready to be able to sit in a meditative place so nothing’s uncomfortable. And ultimately, when you’re in a meditative state, you’re in a truly beautiful state.”
While her spirituality has given Rachel greater joy than she ever could have imagined, she has no interest in pushing it onto others. There are many ways in which people can find their own inner magic, she says.
“There are many ways to do life,” she shares. “I’ve chosen a path where I love going into the Himalayas. I love going into temples, and sitting and doing mantra and spiritual processes. But it’s not for everyone. What I hope people might take from it all is the importance of being who you are and living the way you want. Don’t be ashamed or scared.
“Find people who support, love you and care about you. Ultimately, that’s what life is all about.”
How you can join Rachel…
In September, Rachel is holding events across New Zealand and Australia. They’re an opportunity to share and practice together. She’s also running another series of her popular multi-day retreats in India later this year and in 2025.
Christchurch
September 13: Meditation Workshop (9am – 12pm), Chakra Workshop (1pm to 4pm).
September 14: Yoga and Q&A (9am – 11.30am).
Napier
September 15: Yoga and Q&A (10.30pm – 1pm).
Auckland
September 16: Introduction to Meditation workshop (12pm – 2pm), Introduction to Chakras workshop (2pm – 4pm), Moon Musing (6pm – 8pm).
For more information on all the events and to buy tickets, visit thecotour.com or rachelhunter.com
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