Monty Don is considering leaving ‘Gardener’s World’ in the next two years.
Monty Don wants to leave Gardeners' World in the not so distant future
The ‘Monty Don’s American Gardens’ presenter is thinking about saying goodbye to the long-running BBC Two gardening television series in 2025 as he wants to spend his time left on planet Earth pursuing his other favourite activities.
The 68-year-old broadcaster told Fi Glover, 54, and Jane Garvey, 59, on their Times Radio podcast ‘Off Air With Fi and Jane’ that he wants to get away from the “remorseless treadmill” and dedicate more of his life to writing and travelling.
Monty said: “If they offer me a bit more time, I may take it. But I’m 70 in a few years.
“I like writing books and doing TV shows and have the energy to do that. I have to give something up.
“And I’m not prepared to give up writing and I really enjoy the travel stuff.”
The former ‘My Dream Farm’ presenter - who has three grown-up kids, Adam, Tom and Freya, with his wife Sarah - also admitted that he has been incredibly lucky having “every door open to” him after growing up “incredibly privileged”.
Monty told the presenting duo: “I come from a middle-class Oxbridge background. Every door is open to me and has been all my life. It’s an incredibly privileged class. But if you’d asked me at any stage of my life if I was privileged, I would say of course not. No, no. I’m just like anybody else ... And that’s just not true.
The ‘Gardening Book’ author outlined his longing for his potential replacement to be from an under-represented group to “include everybody” in both telly and gardening.
Monty said: “In a truly just and fair society, we wouldn’t care what someone’s colour or race or creed or sex was. But the truth is that it’s much more delicate.
"And I think that I’m absolutely persuaded that in order to include everybody, you have to open doors that either are or seem to be shut. And if the door is perceived to be shut then it is shut even if actually you think it’s not."