Monty Don addresses Gardeners' World future with fresh comment on departure

Monty Don has addressed his future on Gardeners' World, telling BBC's The One Show that he will host the programme for "at least another three years". 

Addressing speculation over his departure following comments he made last year, Monty reassured viewers that he's not leaving anytime soon. 

Whilst chatting with hosts Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas on the red sofa, Alex quizzed the green-fingered presenter about his future as host. 

"There are some rumours in the paper, I'm not happy about it Monty, that you and Gardeners' World are parting company. Tell me this is not true," said Alex, to which Monty responded: "It is not true." 

© @themontydon

"All things being equal, and unless I do something terribly wrong, I will be doing it for at least another three years, including this year," he explained. 

The comments come after Monty said the "logical thing to do" would be to "give up Gardeners' World" during an appearance on Times Radio last year. 

"The serious point is I will be 70 in two years time," he said at the time. "I want to go on. I like making television programmes. I like writing books. To have the energy to do that and not scrabble, always that sense of scrabbling.

© BBC Studios

"To have the energy to do that and not scrabble, always that sense of scrabbling. I think I have to give something up and I'm not prepared to give up writing and I really enjoy the travel stuff I do," he continued. "So therefore the logical thing to give up is Gardener's World, which is, for all its virtues, a remorseless treadmill."

Back in November, Monty admitted that he expected to depart the show "within the next five years". He told The Guardian that he wants to spend his time and energy on making more documentaries.

© Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

He also revealed who he'd like to replace him as the main presenter. "I would like to think the next Gardeners’ World presenter ideally would be female, would represent either singly, or in multiplicity, the diversity in this country, that has at least some urban context," he said. 

Monty, who's fronted the show since 2003 when he took over from Alan Titchmarsh, added: "The world's changing; we need to change with it. In many ways, it's likely I'm the last middle-aged, middle-class white male with a large garden doing Gardeners' World. Which is fine."