For decades, Monty Don has been a beloved figure in gardening, sharing his passion and expertise with viewers across the UK. However, the Gardeners’ World presenter has recently opened up about a difficult personal health battle—a decade-long struggle with deteriorating knee pain that culminated in the need for double knee replacement surgery.
In a candid column for the BBC Gardeners' World magazine, 70-year-old Monty shared how his knees have been worsening over the last ten years. Despite early warnings from his GP, Monty continued to work hard outdoors, often ignoring advice to rest and manage the pain.
He reflected, “For the last 10 years or more my knees have been giving me the gyp and, it turns out, slowly deteriorating. This is not so unusual or unexpected. I have spent 70 years kneeling on them, asking them to stagger about under unreasonably heavy loads or, until 10 years ago, pounding around tarmacked roads. They have had a long, hard time of it.”
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Monty also disclosed how the condition impacted his work. “You will have rarely seen me do much serious digging, and never kneeling, over the past few series—by the end of a day’s filming, I could barely hobble to the end of the garden.”
Recalling his first visit to the doctor, Monty explained, “He commented drily that knees were appallingly badly designed and that was the end of it. He prescribed painkillers and told me to stop digging. I ignored both aspects of the prescription.” It wasn’t until last summer that scans and a surgical consultation confirmed that both knees required replacement—surprising news given Monty’s hope that at least one knee remained sound.
Despite this challenge, Monty is optimistic about the future. Comparing himself to his rugged Land Rover Defender, he said, “The important thing… is that I shall be able to do things again, to get stuck in and crack on… with a fair wind and thanks to superb surgical skills, I should, like my beaten-up old Defender, keep ploughing on a bit longer.”
This openness isn’t new for Monty. He has previously spoken about his experience with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and shared how he manages his mental wellbeing. On the Gardeners’ World podcast, he revealed, “I now have a pattern whereby I try and spend one day a week on my own in the garden, which is obviously usually a weekend, one of the two weekend days… Even my wife and I, who have always gardened together, we hardly ever physically garden together, we just were in the garden at the same time.”
Monty Don’s resilience and dedication continue to inspire gardeners and viewers everywhere, reminding us all of the importance of health and self-care alongside our passions.