
BBC Alan Titchmarsh's 'heartbreaking' goodbye to daughters over 'abandonment'
Alan Titchmarsh has shared the "heartbreaking" query his daughter would pose after he tucked her in at night.
While chatting on James O'Brien's Full Disclosure podcast in July 2023, the beloved gardening guru opened up about the tough choices he faced due to his demanding career, which often kept him away from home.
At 75, Titchmarsh recounted to O'Brien the "most heartbreaking" part of leaving his family on Sunday nights was saying goodnight to his daughters. His poignant admission comes as Jeremy Clarkson makes headlines, claiming one of his recipes surpasses restaurant fare.
Alan reflected: "It's not something I wanted but it was at a time in my career where I knew it had to be done. The girls would be sort of 10,11 that kind of age."
He continued, recalling the painful moments: "I would go away on a Sunday evening and come back later in the weekend. I do remember the heartbreaking thing of kissing one of them goodnight and them saying 'will you be here in the morning?'.", reports Wales Online.
"I knew I wouldn't and that was really hard of course. I did say, I mean every weekend, it's not as if I'm in the army going away for three months or a year or whatever, so that was my excuse."
After leaving his Yorkshire school in 1964 with just one O level in art at the age of 15, Titchmarsh went on to become a household name, hosting a variety of shows on television and radio. He is now revered as one of the UK's most beloved gardening broadcasters.
Alan initially made his name as an expert on the BBC's Nationwide before taking on presenting duties at the 1983 Chelsea Flower Show. He then became a familiar face on various shows including Pebble Mill and Gardeners' World, and also joined the ranks of the cherished Ground Force as one of its three presenters.
Alan shared that his time on Ground Force thrust him into the limelight, with the show's popularity causing a "quantum leap" in his career. He said: "We were getting audiences of 12 million, it was the Bake Off of its day.
"Yes I got noticed before that but not in a kind of obtrusive sort of way. I remember they moved Ground Force from BBC Two to BBC One because too many people were watching it and that's when we were getting 12 million.
"And I was walking down the street and everybody was looking, and I thought 'ooo gosh'. I went home and I thought 'either I get used to this or I come out of it now."
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