Gardeners’ World presenter Adam Frost previously opened up about his personal battle with a debilitating health condition that impacts approximately 2.5 million people across the UK. The 56-year-old professional gardener has been managing fibromyalgia, a long-term syndrome marked by widespread pain, fatigue, and numerous other symptoms.
Speaking to the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine, Adam revealed: “I worked out that I’ve used plants and music all my life as a way of escape.” He continued: “Each part of my garden now is associated with a song. Some of my plants have connections to grandparents, my friends, adventures I’ve had when I’ve been abroad.” Since initially joining BBC Gardeners’ World as a co-presenter alongside Monty Don in 2016, Adam also explained how his love of gardening supported him during a challenging period of depression, which ultimately led to appointments with a psychiatrist.
Recalling this counsel from the sessions, he told the Mail: “What came out of it was that I shouldn’t retire. He told me I’d be dead in 18 months… ‘If you’re thinking about retiring, go up the high street, there’s an undertakers, go in and choose yourself a box.'”
Reflecting on the psychiatrist’s unexpected advice, Adam remarked: “And I thought: ‘You’re supposed to be helping me.’ It was brilliant.
“My old man used to say: ‘Busy hand, busy hands’, and I’m like that. I’m a grafter, but I have a different mindset now. I get up to have a nice day. Why would I retire? Retire and do what? Garden?” At least this way I get paid for it.”
Adam also disclosed a recent family crisis when his wife Sulina became critically unwell with sepsis, requiring a prolonged hospital stay of 12 weeks.
Adam’s story is a distressing one, detailing the challenges he faced when his 15-year-old daughter began self-harming, ultimately developing an eating disorder.
He described his struggle to keep their lives intact: “Then I caught Covid. I went into a room on my own for 10 days and my brain, all the adrenaline I’d been living on – everything came crashing down. I was sitting in a corner bawling my eyes out.”
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