Anne-Marie grew up in Lancashire in northern England and first came to Ibiza in the early 2000s while studying at university. Like many arriving on the island in their twenties, she spent several seasons here working and experiencing Ibiza through long summers, seasonal jobs and friendships that form quickly when people are far from home.

“That was when the first seeds of my love for Ibiza were sown.”

Years later, she had built a successful catering company in the UK and life was moving forward as expected until an unexpected problem changed everything. The landlord of the kitchen she was working from was forced to close the space, leaving Anne-Marie suddenly without the base her business depended on. One day everything was running normally. The next she was sitting in her living room surrounded by kitchen equipment, unsure what to do next.

Around the same time, she had been sharing images of her food with catering companies abroad. One of them was Cardamom Events, based here in Ibiza, who reached out quickly and offered her a place in their kitchen for the season. With her business suddenly halted in England, the decision to return to the island felt surprisingly clear.

“When one door closed, another one opened. Everything seemed to align at exactly the right time.”

She returned to Ibiza in 2012 and quickly realised that something had shifted. England no longer felt like home in quite the same way. Ibiza, with its landscape and slower rhythm, felt more aligned with the life she wanted to build.

Today Anne-Marie’s Ibiza looks very different from the life she once imagined. Her life is centred around family, faith and the natural environment that surrounds them. She lives quietly in the north with her husband and their two children, now eight and ten, and much of their time together happens outdoors. They swim in the sea, sail around the coastline and explore the hills near their home.

Faith has also become an important part of her life. Sundays are spent at Lighthouse Church, where Anne-Marie helps organise and teach the children’s ministry. It is something she describes as a blessing and a way of contributing to the community that has become her home. The path towards faith was not something she would have predicted earlier in her life.

“Back in my early twenties in the era of parties and clubs, the idea that I would one day become a Christian in Ibiza seemed unimaginable, yet here we are!”

Motherhood reshaped the direction of her work. After many years as a chef, the hours and the culture of that industry no longer felt compatible with the life she wanted for her family. Gradually her focus shifted towards education and working with children in nature.

Today, she runs Child of the Wild, a conservation initiative that encourages kids to spend time outdoors and develop a relationship with the natural world around them. The idea behind it is simple. Children who grow up loving nature are far more likely to protect it. Alongside this project she is completing a Master’s degree in Education and is currently writing a children’s story she hopes to publish.

Living in Ibiza has also changed the way she thinks about time. Before moving to the island she spent years working in cities such as London and Leeds, where the pace of office life often felt relentless and days were measured by the clock. That feeling has never really returned since living here.

For Anne-Marie, raising children on the island offers something increasingly rare. Childhood still happens outdoors. Long summers unfold in the sea and the landscape becomes part of everyday life. At the same time she recognises the realities of island life. As children grow older there are fewer cultural opportunities than in larger cities, which is why she and her husband travel regularly with their children so they experience different places and cultures while keeping Ibiza as their base.

Raising a family here also requires resilience. Many expatriate families live far from grandparents and extended family, which means parents rely heavily on one another to balance work, home and childcare. Despite those challenges, Anne-Marie often reflects on how fortunate she feels and how different her life looks today compared with the one she once imagined.

Some of their most memorable moments happen on the water. The family loves sailing around the island, stopping in quiet coves, sharing simple food on board and spending long days swimming together. Last summer marked a small milestone when both children became confident swimmers and could finally dive straight in alongside their parents.

“Last year was the first time both children were strong swimmers. We could all dive straight in and swim with the fish together. It really felt like heaven.”

Moments like that capture something about growing up in Ibiza. Life here is simple, and through that simplicity children learn to notice things that might otherwise pass by. Looking ahead, Anne-Marie hopes the island can protect what still makes it special: the landscapes that remain untouched, the communities that sustain everyday life and the sense of nature that still defines much of Ibiza beyond its reputation.

For Anne-Marie and her family, Ibiza is simply the place where their children are growing up, and the place that quietly reshaped the direction of their lives.