Alan Titchmarsh has opened up about two tragic family losses and revealed how they ultimately led to a devastating realisation.
In a touching conversation with radio presenter James O’Brien on 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’.”
Alan explained this period of grief was “hard”, but that enough years had now passed for him not to “weep about it” any longer, and that he now likes to “believe that they’re looking down” on him.
It was reported earlier this month that Alan once decided to make a bold move into the world of freelancing in 1980, but, at the time, the gardening icon and his wife, Alison, were about to have a baby.
Alan said he didn’t want to become too comfortable in his magazine job, having struck out into journalism after working at Kew Gardens, a botanic garden in London.
He revealed on Full Disclosure: “I warned Alison that my income would probably halve in the first year.” However, he was ultimately surprised: “But it doubled, totally unexpectedly.”
Alan, who currently writes for The Express and Gardeners’ World Magazine, also hinted about when he would hang up his pen, saying he’d “stop” the day he finds it “impossible to find a current angle on it”.
