RANMALI CLAIRE AMARASEKERA (NEE COREA) was born on the 7th of June 1949, to Henri and Claire Corea. The fifth of six children, her siblings were Ilona, Randunna, Devadunna (Deva), Uttumdunna (Uttum) and Aruni. Moving with the family as her father (as a Police Officer) was regularly transferred, she schooled at the Good Shepherd Convent, Kotehena, Bishop's College, Colombo, the Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala, High School, Kandy and the Convent of the Child Jesus, at Ratnapura. She sat for the GCE (Ordinary Level) Examination from home, as the family had shifted to Colombo, with her father’s retirement. Completing a course in Book-keeping, she sat the GCE (Advanced Level) Examination, from the Aquinas University.

Ranmali was invited by her cousin Siva Obeyesekere, who was the President of the Ladies' Kennel Club, to assist in the running of the club, as Ranmali  was at the time involved with the family’s interest in breeding and showing 'Boxer' and 'Rhodesian Ridgeback' dogs.

It was in 1971, that she met her husband Anil Amarasekera, a school-mate of her two brothers, Deva and Uttum. Although Anil used to visit his classmate Deva at home, it was only after Ranmali and Uttum began to swim at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo, that their friendship blossomed into romance and ended in marriage. The Officer and gentleman that he was, Anil drove all the way to Deniyaya, where Deva served as the Officer-in-Charge of the Police Station, to obtain his approval, before he spoke to their parents to obtain their blessings. They were married on the 4th of December 1975, in a traditional ceremony followed by a 'Blessing' at St. Michael’s Church, Polwatte, in Colpetty, Colombo.

The couple moved to Millewe Estate in Horana, Anil’s ancestral property. Anil had enlisted in the Ceylon Volunteer Force of the Sri Lankan Army at the time of the 1971 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprising, and was later recalled to active service, soon after the separatist war of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam commenced. Ranmali took over the running of the estate and family business, till he returned from the war-front. The couple had three children, Akila born in 1976, Samala in 1978 and Acela in 1980. During the period of the JVP’s second uprising in 1988 and 1989, she and the children moved to the annex in her father’s house in Polhengoda, driving to the estate and back every other day, to check on the work. With the end of JVP uprising, she and the children moved back to Horana, from where, each morning, she would drive the children to attend school at Ladies' College, Colombo 07 and S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. Life returned to normal for the family, when Anil retired from the Army. Anil as a civilian, continued his work that commenced under the late General Denzil Kobbekaduwa, in providing aid to the border villages, which had him visiting those villages regularly, which is to him, now a continuing hobby.

Ranmali and Anil have two grand-children, Elijah the son of Akhila and Shanil Wijewardene, and Aariya the daughter of Acela and Shanika Pinto.