ITV Love Your Garden star Alan Titchmarsh opens up about lie that still ‘eats him up’

Alan Titchmarsh is famed for hosting Love Your Garden (Image: Getty)

Love Your Garden host Alan Titchmarsh recently revealed a surprising story about a lie he told when he was younger.

At 75, Titchmarsh has built a successful career in gardening and television, but his path to success wasn’t traditional. Growing up in Yorkshire, he left school at 15 in 1964 with just one O-level in Art. Despite lacking formal qualifications, he followed his passion for gardening and became an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council.

Titchmarsh has always been open about his humble beginnings, but he recently shared a particular memory from his youth. Speaking on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, the gardening pro admitted that at 16, while studying gardening, he told a surprising lie during a lecture.

Alan had added five shrubs to a list of plants for a project, along with Witch-hazels, which weren’t actually on the list to begin with.

When questioned by his teacher, he lied and later reflected that he had met the teacher again years later at a flower show but still couldn’t bring himself to confess the truth.

Alan doesn't regret not going to university (Image: Getty)

Titchmarsh’s career took off after he worked as an editor for a gardening magazine, which led to his first radio show in 1988, House in a Garden, on BBC Radio 2.

He also made his first television appearances as a horticulture expert on the BBC’s Nationwide.

This exposure helped him secure a spot as the presenter of the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in 1983, a role he continued to hold until 2013. Alongside this, Titchmarsh appeared on other shows, such as Breakfast Time and Open Air, as a guest presenter and gardening expert.

His big break came in 1996 when he took over as host of Gardeners' World, which was filmed in his own garden. A year later, in 1997, Titchmarsh co-hosted the hugely popular series Ground Force, alongside Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh.

Alan with his co-stars Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh on Garden Force (Image: BBC)

However, his time on the show wasn't without its challenges. Alan reportedly had a clash with his co-star Tommy during filming when he became frustrated over a mishap involving sawdust being spilled on some flowers in an Essex garden.

Alan once told Radio Times: "Call me picky if you like but I like my Ground Force gardens to be pristine when we finish them. I do not get a thrill from seeing them covered in dandruff."