She grew up in a private zoo, surrounded by endangered species, with parents fired by passions for conservation and music. Her Rhodesian-born mother was a champion swimmer and diver, then a model and a Bluebell Girl in Las Vegas before settling down to have 5 children, and her Welsh father was a song writer and record producer. She developed a love of travel and wildlife via her gallivanting father mixed with an appreciation of home and family through her rock of a mother.