Cherished BBC presenter Monty Don has revealed that he could have “ended up in prison” due to his troubled upbringing but credits his marriage with turning his life around. Though he is best known for hosting Gardeners' World, Don's upbringing was far from easy. In an interview with The Guardian , he shared details of a difficult childhood, marked by a strained relationship with his parents, and opened up about being expelled from boarding school as a teenager, after being sent there at just seven years old.
“In many ways, it was very privileged – home counties, middle class – and tough in lots of ways, and that could have f***** me up. Some people would say it did.” He shared that two key factors played a crucial role in steering him away from a darker path.
“Two things happened,” he replies. “First, by being the black sheep in my family, I always felt able to escape it ..
. Second, I was lucky enough – it’s really basic – to meet somebody that I completely fell in love with when I was young and we became the team,” he says. “I went from a life that was complicated and difficult, and I was troubled.
I was a difficult person. In a different environment, I definitely would have ended up in prison.” Monty Don was born on July 8, 1955, in Iserlohn, West Germany, the youngest of five kids.
His dad, Denis Thomas Keiller Don, was a career soldier stationed in Germany when Monty was born, and his mom was Janet Montagu. He went to three different independ.