The Gardeners’ World presenter has opened up about his life away from the camera with wife Sarah and said that he keeps his home and public life separate
Danny Gutmann and Liv Clarke
14:47, 08 Feb 2025
Monty and Sarah Don(Image: Popperfoto via Getty Images)
Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don has given fans an insight into his personal life in an interview shared on Michael Parkinson’s YouTube channel this week.
Speaking on Virtually Parkinson – an AI-driven digital replica of the late TV interviewer Sir Michael Parkinson – the gardening legend opened up about his life behind the cameras.
He shared that when he is at home he goes by his birth name, and not Monty. He said: “When I’m at home, I’m Montagu, and my wife, for example, has never called me Monty, my mother never called me Monty, I’m always Montagu.”
While he’s known to millions by the shortened version of his name, there’s a clear disconnection between his public figure and personal life, something Monty holds dear, WalesOnline reports.
Monty Don(Image: Getty Images)
He added: “It’s a completely separate life, my home life has no connection with my public life at all in so much that, you know, there’s no need for them to cross over.”
This distinction doesn’t dampen his appreciation for the doors television has opened for him, as he readily expresses gratitude for how it enriched his life.
Monty said: “But the enrichment is there, the fact that I’ve had the privilege to go all over the world, and talk to so many people, and see so many amazing gardens, it’s something that I never would have had the opportunity to do and that feeds into my home life.”
In recent news that’s sure to delight gardening aficionados, Monty has confirmed in the Radio Times that he will continue sharing his green-fingered wisdom on the beloved BBC show, committing to the programme for the foreseeable future: “I never make plans beyond two years, but I’ve agreed to do another two (from January 2025),”.
He shared: “Every time I think, ‘Am I really going to do this? ‘ But the truth is that I do enjoy it. I’m lucky because it’s in my own garden. If the programme is made well, I’ll continue.”
Over the years, Monty has won the hearts of green-fingered fans across the nation, not least due to his engaging segments on ITV’s This Morning, where he began sharing his horticultural wisdom back in 1989.
Arguably though, his crowning moment was stepping into Alan Titchmarsh’s shoes in 2003, as the new host of BBC’s Gardeners’ World.
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