Monty Dons Wife Threatened to Leave Over Depression

has shed light on his battle and how his mental health affected his marriage and career. 

The iconic gardener, 70, spoke to  on The Rosebud Podcast about how the failure of his jewellery business led him into a 'shameful' hole of depression - which saw his wife Sarah Erskine, whom he married in 1983, threaten to leave him. 

He revealed Sarah said she would leave with their three children if he did not seek help, saying: 'I was angry, difficult and not somebody you want to live with'.

Monty, real name Montagu Denis Wyatt Don, said: 'She came to me one day and said, “Look, either you move out or I’m taking the children and moving out. I’m with you, I love you, I’m not leaving you, but we can’t go on living with you like this.”'

He detailed how the act 'would have killed him', so he sought medical help and was prescribed Prozac which 'made him see light again', while also attributing his improvement to fame, after Sarah said: 'Fame really suits you.'

Monty has shed light in the past on his battle with depression, which he explained came off the back of the failure of their shared jewellery business, which designed, made, and sold costume jewellery for stars, including Princess Diana. 

The 1987 stock market crash caused an almost complete bankruptcy as it cut off American sales, their biggest market - leading to the couple selling up, being forced to sell their properties and leaving Monty on Jobseeker's Allowance. 

After the 'shameful' business situation , he fell into a deep depression. 

During the chat, Gyles asked: 'Can I just briefly, before we get on to the gardens—because I think they, in a way, are a salvation and they are where you have found the enchanted place that to me you seem to be in now...

'Can we just explore the lows, the depression, when you were in bed for six weeks?...

'Obviously we can see roots of this in your childhood, what you described to us, but how have you come through all that? Did you take therapy, did you take drugs?'

On his journey, he said: 'I’ve had therapy, which I found quite helpful, but the person who I found helpful moved, and then the next person I didn’t find helpful at all, so I stopped that. I took Prozac for seven years—that’s a mood booster. 

'It’s a serotonin booster, and it worked wonderfully well for about a year.  

Discussing the groundbreaking moment, Monty said: 'I’ll never forget the moment—because Sarah said to me, we’d lost everything, we were living in a rented place...

'She came to me one day and said, “Look, either you move out or I’m taking the children and moving out. I’m with you, I love you, I’m not leaving you, but we can’t go on living with you like this.”...

'And of course I was slightly unaware. I was angry, I was difficult, I was not somebody you wanted to live with. And I said, well, that would kill me, you know, that can’t happen. So therefore, okay, I’ll go and see a doctor...

'That’s all she wanted me to do—go and see someone. I remember going to the doctor and saying my knee hurts. And he looked at me and said, “Anything else?”'

He explained the doctor then prescribed him with the antidepressant: 'Anyway, he put me on Prozac, and after about ten days I remember washing up at the kitchen sink and noticing how beautiful the light was on the leaves in the hedge opposite...

'And I suddenly felt—I don’t feel sad. I feel okay. 

'And for about six months I felt like I was on holiday in a nice seaside town and the sun was shining. Wonderful. Well, that’s all we want, isn’t it? And that goes, and then you keep taking this drug because you don’t want to go back. 

'But after years I suddenly thought, I have no idea how I feel, because I feel normal. Is it because of the drug? Is it because the drug isn’t doing anything at all?'

Gyles then queried the star over him ending his antidepressant journey, saying: 'So you stopped on your own?'

He established: 'No, I went to the doctor and said I want to come off, and it takes about six months—you wean yourself off—and I’ve never been back.'

On how fame also helped save him, he revealed that Sarah also noticed how the validation of fame helped improve him.  

He went on: 'Actually, the biggest help in my life is about 19 years ago the BBC offered me a series called Around the World in 80 Gardens, and for the first time in my life I spent most of the winter in the southern hemisphere—Australia, South America, Thailand, India...

'And you take Sarah on these trips? No. Oh, this is time off for her—well done. And I didn’t feel a twinge of anything other than professional engagement. Sarah says—and I think she’s right—she says, “Fame really suits you.”...

'And if I’m honest, I think there’s an element of truth in that. I think that being applauded, if you’re someone who likes being on stage, being applauded is good for your health. I tell you what it is—it’s sunshine. Yes, it is. You get sunshine...

'So you can have sunshine when you go to the southern hemisphere, but also when you walk on stage—because I know you’re doing ten or more dates promoting this book—when 2,000 people at a time say, “It’s Monty Don, we love him.”'

Monty also detailed his heartbreaking cancer  battle when he was just 10.

Gyles said: 'When you were ill, you had a form of cancer? How long ago was that?'

The gardening expert replied: 'I was ten. I was playing football at school, fell, and hurt my elbow.. It was very, very painful. The next day, I was at boarding school. They took me to the hospital and I went and had an X-ray...

'They had found something in the X-ray - what they found was a tumour. It was just before xmas and they let me have Christmas and immediately after Christmas i went into the Battle Hospital in Reading. I have the scar from there to there...

'They took the bone out and scraped the marrow out. It was marrow cancer.' Luckily, it hadn't spread,' Monty explained. '[The doctors] said if it had been six months later, it could have gone to the rest of my body. That wouldn't have been very good.'

He admitted he 'loved' his radiotherapy: 'I had radiotherapy for a year. It's amazing I had children. I loved that radiotherapy because my mother would collect me from school and I would have the day with just her and I think thats part of being part of a big family and to have your mother to yourself is a rare thing. 

'I dont think my sister was conscious I was ill. I knew it was serious because my mother came to visit me every day and my dad came once.'

He explained that he was forced to have a bone removed, from which they scraped the barrow as the cancer was in the area.