Alan Titchmarsh's heartbreak after loved ones died just days apart

Alan Titchmarsh has told of the devastating memory that still haunts him of losing two of his dearest loved ones within a day of each other.

The 75-year-old gardener and broadcaster has "vividly" recalled the time he lost both family members during his formative years.

"I never knew my grandfather on my dad's side - he died before I was born," he told the Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast in a new chat.

"My mum’s mum and dad died when I was eight. I remember vividly because I was told they died fallen over in the playground at school and broken my leg. As my pot was being taken off, they told me that I had lost my grandmother and my grandfather.

"My grandmother had been alright," he continued. "My grandfather had been taken to hospital and I remember going to see him and in those days - a tube going up his nose. These images one remembers from childhood.

"My grandmother was at home, and I was told this later by my mother. My grandfather had always been very obedient to my grandmother, Kitty. While my grandfather, George Herbert, was in hospital my grandma died of a heart attack.

"Then, within a day, my grandfather died in hospital. My mother always joked that she [grandma] said to him: 'Come on, Herbert.'

“They both went, and I was heartbroken at age seven or eight," he recalled: "I remember he smoked Condor tobacco in their kitchen where they lived in Ashgrove in Oakley. I remember the smell of the kitchen, which was food and wooden pipe tobacco and he would give me his Condor boxes to play trains with on the table.

"There was a little ashtray there, which was from the Coronation 1953, and it had the Royal Coat of Arms in it, and my grandmother used to hold this and say 'the lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown. The lion beat the unicorn upside down.'

The ashtray sits on the table at home. So memories of them... that’s all that I’ve got from them." Alan has also previously opened up about two tragic family losses and revealed how they ultimately led to a devastating realisation.

In a conversation with radio presenter James O'Brien in an unearthed 2023 episode of the Full Disclosure podcast, the beloved TV gardener, 75, spoke about his parents.

Alan, who is best known for his work on BBC Gardeners' World and Ground Force, explained the extent to which his mum, who sadly died in 2002, witnessed his success.

He said: "Well, she was...yeah, she was proud of me in the end and that was nice to know, and the thing you realise, as soon as you've lost both your parents..." Before disclosing his thoughts, he explained that his dad died in 1986, meaning Alan was then in his 30s, and with his mum dying in the early 2000s, he would've then been in his 50s.

Alan continued: "You suddenly realise there's nobody to impress anymore, nobody to show off to, really, nobody to make proud of you, and I think that's a big realisation for anybody in any walk of life.

"I think we all try and do right by our parents in a kind of reflected way, saying, 'Look, I did alright; you saw me right. You grounded me; you brought me up to achieve what I've achieved', and it's not just showing off to your parents.

"It's feeling you want to give them some kind of vindication for your life and that they did right by...I was very aware of that when they went and I would still...I'd do something and I'd think, 'Oh, I must ring me...oh'."