Rosemary Clare Duffield was born on 1 July 1971 in Norwich and later moved to south-east London. She left school at 16, completed an administration apprenticeship at Guy's Hospital, and attended a further education college. After moving to Canterbury in 1998, she worked as a primary school teaching assistant in various schools and briefly as a political satire writer. In 2015, she stood for Labour in the St Stephen's ward of Canterbury City Council.