Alan Titchmarsh has been married to his wife Alison for 50 years and he has admitted that she keeps his feet firmly on the ground after so many years together.
The TV gardener has confessed his wife, who is a retired doctor, has no interest in his pin-up status, despite him earning the accolade of twice being voted the sexiest man on TV after George Clooney.
‘She dealt with it because I am, as she says, just her little gardener,’ Alan, 76, told Saga Magazine.
‘We’re still the people we were when we married. I hope my head hasn’t been turned.’
Alan and Alison married in 1975 after meeting in their early twenties at an amateur dramatics group.
They share two daughters – their eldest, Polly, was born in 1980, followed by Camilla, who was born in 1982 – and split their time between their Grade-II listed Georgian farmhouse in Hampshire and their holiday home on the Isle of Wight.
Alan Titchmarsh has been married to his wife Alison for 50 years and he has admitted that she keeps his feet firmly on the ground after so many years together
The TV gardener has revealed his wife, who is a retired doctor, has no interest in his pin-up status, despite him earning the accolade of twice being voted the sexiest man on TV
As well as taking her husband’s fame in her stride, Alan has revealed that the couple both have to deal with the occasional overzealous fan.
‘I was once ever so slightly crabby on an aeroplane, when a woman came down the aisle and demanded to know, “What’s wrong with my tomatoes?” I said, “Well, I can’t tell from here.” She said, “There’s no need to be like that!”
‘The one time I nearly lost it was when I was in a restaurant with Alison, about to eat. A man grabbed my arm and said, “Now I’ve got you!”
‘My fork was halfway to my mouth. It was hard to keep my cool.
Alan graciously accepts though that his huge fanbase has given him his career, adding: ‘Generally speaking, it’s not an effort. It’s fine. We always say, “They bought our house.”‘
The TV favourite was awarded a CBE earlier this year by his good friend King Charles, and admitted at the time that he shared a ‘teary moment’ telling Alison and his daughters about the honour which comes 25 years after his MBE.
He has been a familiar face since he covered the Chelsea Flower Show for the BBC in 1983, going on to front Gardener’s World from 1996 to 2002.
He also presented the garden makeover TV show Ground Force, which propelled him, Charlie Dimmock and Charlie Walsh to fame.
But alongside his television work, the Yorkshire-born gardener has served as the president of Perennial, formerly the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society, since 2004. He is also the president of the charity Plant Heritage, whose patron is the King.
The TV favourite was awarded a CBE earlier this year by his good friend King Charles, and admitted at the time that he shared a ‘teary moment’ telling Alison
‘I’ve been an MBE for 25 years, so I kind of thought that was… I’ve been very happy with that,’ he said.
Describing his emotions, Alan said: ‘Thrilled to bits, surprised, but thrilled and honoured that I should be thought worth a CBE, flattered beyond belief.’
