Alan Titchmarsh has opened up about a devastating loss in his family life, with the former Gardeners’ World presenter admitting he was left ‘heartbroken’
15:49, 29 Aug 2025Updated 15:53, 29 Aug 2025
Earlier this year we saw Alan’s love of dogs as he hosted Channel 5’s Underdog to Superdog(Image: Getty Images)
The nation’s favourite gardener Alan Titchmarsh is back on our screens this weekend, with his regular Love Your Weekend show on ITV. As well as guest appearances from Dame Sheila Hancock and Ted Lasso star Jeremy Swift, a lengthy discussion about dogs will also feature on the programme.
It’s no surprise that dog-lover Alan jumped at the chance to get pooches involved in the show again.
Aside from welcoming Golden Retriever-Labrador cross puppy Titch as a Love Your Weekend regular late last year, the Ilkley-born gardener presented Underdog to Superdog for Channel 5 in February.
But, as well as providing immense joy, dogs have also given Alan some of his saddest moments. Speaking of his first family dog, Yellow Labrador Lulu, he said: “I don’t remember ever being so heartbroken at the loss of an animal”, after she eventually died.
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine, he revealed that his two daughters first learned to walk by holding onto Lulu’s collar.
Alan’s always been a dog-lover(Image: TV Times, TV Times/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
However, Lulu had a rocky start with the Titchmarsh family. Alan wrote how she had arrived in their household as a boisterous two-year-old and caused chaos in their small Sunningdale home.
“It was madness really,” Alan wrote in his book Trowel and Error, explaining: “A Labrador is not a small dog. But we were prepared to exercise her, and we had the loosely named ‘conservatory’ for her to sleep in. For two months she drove us mad.”
Alan and his wife Alison, at the end of their tether, came close to giving the dog up. After talking it over with friends, Alan and Alison resolved to give Lulu one last week to change her ways.
Alan’s move over to Pebble Mill seemed to upset Lulu(Image: Dave Benett, Dave Benett/Getty Images for Killik & Co)
Alan recalled: “The next day she was a changed dog. Telepathy? Who knows. But it was as quick as that.
“Loo, as we called her, was my dog. I trained her, walked her and generally was her right-hand man. I used to wrestle with her, and she’d do a passable imitation of a lion, opening her mouth and pretending to eat me, which had the kids shrieking with laughter.”
Despite initially being a loose cannon at home, Lulu went on to become a perfectly-disciplined TV star: “I filmed a series of walks for Breakfast Time and she came with me. “
Alan’s dog appeared on some of his TV shows(Image: TV Times, TV Times/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
“She could do eight or ten ‘takes’ without getting bored, always taking the same route, always performing perfectly in front of the camera,” Alan reminisced.
When Alan moved over to Pebble Mill, which took him away from home for several days at a time, Lulu would make her displeasure over his absence known by ignoring the star when he returned home.
He sadly wrote of his beloved dog’s death: “She died, eventually, at fifteen. I don’t remember ever being so heartbroken at the loss of an animal.”
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