Gardeners’ World star Monty Don has previously opened up about nearly going bankrupt with his wife Sarah in their eye-opening book, The Jewel Garden.
The 67-year-old BBC star and his wife, who married in 1983, described in their autobiography how they felt “like lambs to the slaughter” when they almost “lost everything”.
The pair co-ran an initially successful costume jewellery business but, due to the stock market crash of 1987, they were left almost bankrupt and without any savings.
Recalling the distressing time, Sarah and Monty revealed in their book that they both became physically ill and were even forced to sell their home for a fraction of its original price.
Monty wrote: “We were lambs to the slaughter and we lost everything, we lost our house, our business. We sold every stick of furniture we had.”
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While Sarah explained in more detail: “A bad situation got worse every day. The banks wanted their money and started to bounce our cheques whilst simultaneously adding their charges – and interest on them – to the tally.
“Of course, it could not go on. Something had to give. As it turned out, that something proved to be our shop, our business, our savings, our furniture – and our home.”
Monty went on to reveal that the pair were forced to choose whether to declare bankruptcy or sell everything and pay back what they owed.
While they chose the latter and eventually managed to turn their lives around, Sarah detailed how it was a tough time for them both.
She added: “How did we ever believe that we could have saved the situation?
“I suppose the lowest point for me what when I was hidden away on my sickbed while potential buyers traipsed round the house.”
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Monty finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel when he was given the opportunity to manage a slot on a TV gardening segment in the early Nineties.
He also landed a job writing a column for the Observer, which proved to be a pivotal moment for the presenter.
Speaking to the paper’s former deputy editor during an interview with the Guardian in 2016, he explained what the job had meant to him.
He said: “I remember the Observer calling and saying they would like me to do the column.
“The editor explained it wasn’t unfortunately a ‘life-changing’ contract, with a bit of a laugh. I think it was £250 a week.
“But the fact was that to me at that moment it really was life-changing,” he added.
“We had a young family, we had lost our house and everything. The idea that somebody was saying we are going to give you this cheque every week was like a miracle.”
Monty and Sarah share three grown-up children – Tom, Adam and Freya – and are also proud grandparents to George and Daisy Rose.
The Jewel Garden by Monty and Sarah Don is available to purchase from Waterstones, Amazon and other retailers.
The synopsis describes The Jewel Garden as “the story of the garden that bloomed from the muddy fields around the Dons’ Tudor farmhouse, a perfect metaphor for Monty and Sarah’s own rise from the ashes of a spectacular commercial failure in the late ’80s.”
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