Monty Don, star of BBC‘s Gardener’s World, made a shocking confession about his old London home at his one-man show in Somerset, as well as revealing the devastating reason for his departure.
The 69-year-old left the modest Victorian end-of-terrace home in the 1980s, when they were both jewellery designers, but found himself surprised to see how it was being advertised by estate agents last year.
He told his audience: “The house we bought in 1981 for £30,000 was sold last year for £1.7 million, and it was advertised as having ‘a garden done by Monty Don’, which probably added three and sixpence to the value.”
Monty also revealed why he and his now-wife Sarah, moved out, stating that they had been burgled three times, but that he had been “just as happy in that 100ft by 30ft London garden as at any other time gardening since”.
He added: “Gardening is nothing to do with size, or money; it’s what you get out it.”
The horticulturalist now lives in Herefordshire with Sarah.
Inside Monty and Sarah’s marriage
With the exception of his pups, Monty doesn’t give fans much of a glimpse of his family, though he hosts the show from his garden. Away from the cameras, he revels in his quiet countryside life with Sarah.
When Monty first laid eyes on Sarah during his time as an undergraduate at Cambridge University, he said he felt “intense attraction at first sight”, during an appearance on White Wine Question Time. After dating for several years, the pair finally got married on 29 July 1983.
To celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary, Monty posted a photo from the big day on Instagram, writing a romantic note in the caption.
He penned: “We got married 39 years ago today – the picture is a little faded, a little wrinkly, like us but the love is as evergreen and strong now as it was all those years ago.”
The couple share three children: Adam, Freya and Tom, all of whom are believed to be in their thirties with their own children.
Speaking on the Gardeners’ World podcast in 2022, Monty revealed how he and Sarah make decisions about their home, Longmeadow, explaining that while they’ve occasionally disagreed about their garden, Sarah is always supportive.
“Sarah has always been an entirely supportive partner in crime,” he said. “One of the things I always say privately and I should say publicly at every opportunity, it’s her garden as much as mine. This is not my garden, it’s our garden. It’s ‘We’ always.”
Monty continued: “Every significant decision, and quite a few insignificant ones, are made by the pair of us in agreement and we have this principle that both of us have a veto over everything. It’s a very good way to run a system because what it means is, if you disagree, and we do a lot, you can’t do it and say ‘Live with it.’
He added: “You might have terrible rows, you might have a lot of persuading, it might mean negotiation. It might take two years before that plant goes in the ground, but when it does you’ve agreed. But by and large, we generally agree and sometimes it happens that you agree for a quiet life and then, really irritatingly, you realise they were right all along.
