Ali Bastian moves to Ireland after suffering 'burnout'

Ali Bastian has moved her family to Ireland for a fresh start after suffering "burnout".

The former 'Hollyoaks' star has revealed she's left her life in London behind after a difficult period in which she struggled to recover following her second pregnancy and suffered the death of her best friend just a week after her daughter was born in 2023 - and she decided a new home in Ireland for herself, her husband David O'Mahony and their two children - Isla and Isabella - would help her heal.

In a post on Instagram, she showed off their new home and wrote: "Saying good bye to my London flat was very emotional, I’ve lived there for about 18 years.

"I rented it first and then bought it a few years later. It was the most secure I had ever felt … I moved around a lot as a child and for many reasons often felt very unsettled.

"This flat was my life raft through highs and lows of my career, through the madness of Covid, it’s where my babies came home from the hospital, took their first steps ... all the magical mess of life. The good, the bad … the hilarious and then the heartbreak.

"I never thought I would want to leave but life had other plans."

She went on to explain: "I had a very difficult second birth and postpartum period with my second and in the end my little fam went to Ireland for a circuit breaker last year as my body just wasn’t healing.

"Two weeks after being in Ireland my c-section finally closed up, I was about seven months post partum by then.

"My nervous system finally had the break it so desperately needed - I was certainly suffering a major burn out at that point and London life was just too much on top of everything else.

"When we came back to London there were more turbulent times to come and some tremendous losses that brought me to my knees. Somehow I put one foot in front of the other for my husband and babies."

Ali explained she felt "too raw" to return to acting and she needed a change. Ali added: "Slowly a plan was hatched and here we are now sitting in our little house, overlooking the ocean on the West Coast of Ireland ...

"This is more than a house renno project for us … this move has felt like our best chance of healing ... No longer needing to be a life raft but more a spring board into an exciting future."