The Gardener’s World star made the emotional confession when appearing on the Rosebud Podcast with Gyles Brandreth
The 70-year-old, who lives in Herefordshire, revealed that his wife, Sarah Erskine, once threatened to move out with their children unless he sought help.
“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’,” Monty recalled.
The 70-year-old admitted that he was “not somebody you wanted to live with”, describing himself as “angry” and “difficult”, but said that the move from he wife would “kill me”, and would not let the situation happen.
Monty agreed to seek medical help and was later prescribed an antidepressant.
“And after about ten days, I remember washing up the kitchen sink, and noticing how beautiful the light was on the leaves in the hedge opposite.
“And I suddenly feel, ‘I don’t feel sad, I feel okay’.”
Monty said that for the next six months, he felt like he was “on holiday in a nice seaside town and the sun was shining”.
The star tied the knot with Sarah in 1983, with the couple going through their fair share of ups and downs, including the collapse of their jewellery business in the 1980s.
Monty’s romance with Sarah began when she was still married to her first husband.Â
Speaking on the podcast White Wine Question Time in 2023, Monty revealed that he had experienced an “intense attraction at first sight” towards Sarah and expressed “no regrets at all” about how they met, despite initially feeling “a bit guilty”.
He said: “It was obviously complicated. For me, it was intense attraction at first sight. Her husband was someone I knew very well. I just remember thinking, how come she met him before she met me? Why is the person that you feel strongly attracted to with someone else?”
He said he “wasn’t trying to pinch someone else’s wife or anything like that”, but that he and Sarah had enjoyed spending time together “in a platonic way” while her husband, a botanist, had been away.
He went on: “You know when you’re very attracted to someone, you don’t dare get too close to them or show interest.
“It turned out we felt the same way but she was married to someone else. To cut a long story short, she decided she didn’t want to have an affair but she chose me.
“I’ve always felt a bit guilty about it but at the same time all’s fair in love and war. You can’t pussyfoot around. I feel sorry for him but it happened and I’m really glad it happened. I have no regrets at all.”