Inside Monty Don's financial woes and agonising health struggle

Horticulturalist Monty Don, who contiguous (January 31) appears successful Monty Don's British Gardens, has had to navigate a rocky roadworthy connected his way to becoming a wildly palmy household name

Gardener's World presenter Monty Don is simply a existent earthy erstwhile it comes to each things horticulture, and it whitethorn beryllium hard for immoderate fans to representation him anyplace other but successful a beautiful, flourishing garden.

However, the 69-year-old broadcaster has had a far-from-easy travel connected his tangled roadworthy to success, which has seen him look bankruptcy and a achy conflict with mental illness, which took a superior toll connected him and his family.

Indeed, fewer radical whitethorn realise that, earlier uncovering his emotion of each things plants and flowers, Monty's vocation took him successful a precise antithetic direction, which saw him hitch shoulders with A-Listers and adjacent Royalty. And though his archetypal ventures yet didn't enactment out, they paved the mode for him to bloom into the green-fingered adept whose wisdom gardening buffs person travel to trust upon.

Business beloved by Princess Diana that went bust

Back successful the 1980s, Monty and his wife, Sarah Erskine, ran a fashionable jewellery store named Monty Don Jewellery, which specialised mostly successful costume jewellery. At the tallness of the brand's popularity, you would person been capable to browse for jewels successful high-end stores crossed the globe, including Harrods, Harvey Nichols, and Liberty, oregon work astir the store successful Vogue.

In a 2005 nonfiction penned for The Independent, Monty wrote: "Costume jewellery has its worth wholly from its plan and appearance, not from the outgo of its materials. Our jewellery is inactive successful the V&A. When we were flying, we were truly flying. At our best, we were the champion successful the world astatine what we did. But we were ne'er rather arsenic palmy arsenic our publicity convinced different radical - and ourselves - that we were. We were hopelessly under-capitalised and borrowing constantly."

Famous clients included the likes of Boy George and Michael Jackson, portion Princess Diana herself was said to beryllium a customer. Sadly, everything changed aft the Wall Street fiscal clang of 1987, and the entrepreneurial mates mislaid everything. In their associated 2004 autobiography The Jewel Garden, Monty opened up astir their bankruptcy, remarking that they felt "like lambs to the slaughter" erstwhile their fortunes changed, near to merchantability "every instrumentality of furniture" they owned astatine Leominster Market.

Sarah remembered: "A atrocious concern got worse each day. The banks wanted their wealth and started to bounce our cheques whilst simultaneously adding their charges - and involvement connected them - to the tally. Of course, it could not spell on. Something had to give. As it turned out, that thing proved to beryllium our shop, our business, our savings, our furnishings - and our home."

Battle with 'unhealable' depression

Monty's idiosyncratic and fiscal difficulties took a toll, and it was aft this turning constituent successful his beingness that helium began to endure from what helium described arsenic "unhealable depression". Monty's depression became truthful terrible that Sarah besides became disquieted astir the wellbeing of their children, who had started to ask: "Why is daddy ever crying?"

Explaining however helium managed to question assistance during this achy period, Monty recalled: "[In the end] I went to spot a healer. I can't retrieve if helium was an herbalist, acupuncturist, homoeopath oregon white-coated religion healer, but I liked him. He had maine abstain from tea, java and intoxicant and described my assorted symptoms with unerring accuracy. [...] After a fewer months of this puritanical authorities they told maine I was unhealable."

The healer advised Monty that the champion mode to find happiness erstwhile much would beryllium to find solace successful the earthy world, a pursuit that has since blossomed into a precise fruitful career. Opening up astir his intelligence wellness struggles during an interrogation with the BBC, Monty said: "I person for galore years, suffered from depression, which comes and goes but tends to beryllium thing that is worse successful winter. And, interaction wood, it's been overmuch amended for the past fewer years. But for me, the benefits of quality are each astir the carnal transportation with the bushed of the earthy world.

"Some of that bushed is bleak – wintertime is cold. And yet adjacent if wrong you are bleak and grey and cold, if you judge that outpouring volition blossom wrong you, arsenic good arsenic extracurricular successful the garden, that's powerful. So that's however it works for me."

Monty Don's British Gardens airs contiguous astatine 8pm connected BBC Two

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