4 weeks ago
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Cherished BBC presenter Monty Don has revealed that he could have “ended up in prison” due to his troubled upbringing but credits his marriage with turning his life around.
Though he is best known for hosting Gardeners' World, Don's upbringing was far from easy.
In an interview with The Guardian, he shared details of a difficult childhood, marked by a strained relationship with his parents, and opened up about being expelled from boarding school as a teenager, after being sent there at just seven years old.
“In many ways, it was very privileged – home counties, middle class – and tough in lots of ways, and that could have f***** me up. Some people would say it did.”
He shared that two key factors played a crucial role in steering him away from a darker path.
“Two things happened,” he replies. “First, by being the black sheep in my family, I always felt able to escape it … Second, I was lucky enough – it’s really basic – to meet somebody that I completely fell in love with when I was young and we became the team,” he says. “I went from a life that was complicated and difficult, and I was troubled. I was a difficult person. In a different environment, I definitely would have ended up in prison.”
Monty Don was born on July 8, 1955, in Iserlohn, West Germany, the youngest of five kids. His dad, Denis Thomas Keiller Don, was a career soldier stationed in Germany when Monty was born, and his mom was Janet Montagu.
He went to three different independent schools growing up. First, there was Quidhampton School in Basingstoke, then Bigshotte School in Wokingham. At just seven years old, he was asked to leave Bigshotte for being too rowdy.
He later attended Malvern College in Malvern, which he absolutely hated. After that, he went to a state school, The Vyne, and later Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke for sixth form. He failed his A-levels and, while retaking them at night school, and reportedly worked during the day on a building site and a pig farm. Despite everything, his love for gardening and farming started early.
While studying at Cambridge University, he met Sarah Erskine, who was trained as a jeweller and architect. They got married in 1983 and have been together for over 40 years now.
However, Monty has said in the past that he felt a bit "guilty" about breaking up her first marriage, but he has "no regrets" about how things turned out.
He said: "She chose me and it was for about six months an extremely difficult, unhappy tormented set-up because he was not very happy with that arrangement. He completely reasonably felt betrayed and very, very, very angry.
“The point is I’ve always felt a bit guilty about it, but at the same time there is a kind of ruthlessness. All is fair in love and war. You can’t pussyfoot about.
"If you decide to be with someone and it means breaking up their marriage, you can’t then say: ‘Oh I feel really bad about this.’ No I don’t. I thought it was great, it was wonderful. I’m so glad. I feel sorry for him, but it happened and I’m really glad it happened. I have no regrets at all.”
English (US) ·