Elon Musk’s twice ex-wife says she is “loath to attach a label to my life” as she opens up about finding her peace on a farm in the UK with five other adults, dogs, horses, pigs, geese, chickens, sheep and more.
Talulah Riley might be entering her back to the earth era, but that doesn’t make her a “tradwife.” The Pride & Prejudice star thinks her marital background, for one thing, immediately disqualifies her.
Previously married to Elon Musk twice, Riley wrote in an essay for The Sunday Times over the weekend, “I’ve been divorced twice — there’s nothing trad about that unless you’re Zsa Zsa Gabor.”
Since marrying Love Actually star Thomas Brodie-Sangster in June, the couple has settled into a life very unlike most of their acting contemporaries. But this way of life has always been within her.
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In her essay, Riley writes about keeping chickens and rabbits in her Bel Air home with Musk while studying agriculture at a nearby community college, adding, “My father dubbed me the Beverly Hillbilly.”
The Beverly Hillbillies sitcom was the story of uncultured country folk trying on cultured city life. Zsa Zsa’s sister Eva Gabor starred in Green Acres, which flipped the premise by having a New York socialite discover country living.
Perhaps its no coincidence Riley suggested connections to both as her experience has in some ways echoed both experiences. But what does that make Riley? She asked the same thing, penning, “So, am I a hippy? Homesteader? Trad wife? Luddite? Millennial Marie Antoinette?”
“Los Angeles was quite the culture shock to me, it being so far removed from my dream of a bucolic English life, so being with the animals at Pierce provided real respite,” Riley wrote, which is why she’s so happy to be “safely home in the UK, and it’s full steam ahead on the rural idyll.”
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She fully acknowledges embracing some of the ideals that the typical “tradwife” epitomizes, while also emphasizing that while she might be looking forward to making her own butter and is currently nailing sourdough loaves on the weekly, “I won’t be posting pictures of home-baked bread to Instagram any time soon.”
In fact, she believes “the real benefit of this kind of life is prioritizing real-world communities over online ones,” which would also seem to go against the grain of the online “tradwife” community that proudly shares their lives with the digital world.
“We live in an era where lifestyles are commoditized online, indexed by hashtags,” wrote Riley. “We are encouraged to ‘be the brand’ and exert influence, prioritizing personal growth.”
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The “tradwife” label has recently gone viral in relation to online influencers led by Hannah Neeleman and Nara Smith, though both women have also denounced the label. The term is slang for “traditional wife,” and has been decried by many as a backwards-looking movement, glorifying traditional, more subservient roles for wives that limit their opportunities and roles in the larger world.
“I am loath to attach a label to my life, which is many-faceted, so please don’t call me a trad wife,” Riley emphasized in her piece. “Happiness, for me, has wandered in slowly and seems directly proportional to the number of chickens that come tapping at the kitchen door every morning.”
“Thomas might also have something to do with it,” she added.
