Meet Sarah Don. wife of Gardener’s World‘s host Monty Don. In 2022, he chatted with Gardeners’ World magazine podcast with editor Lucy Hall and revealed that he is “entirely supportive” when it comes to working on their Herefordshire garden, Longmeadow. The host revealed that they have disagreements on several occasions nevertheless they are very supportive of one another.
During the interview, Monty shared and reflected on a time back in 1993 when he had accidentally bought 1,100 trees at an auction instead of 12. Lucy asked about Sarah’s reaction to the 1100 trees. He said, “She wasn’t entirely pleased by it, mainly because we couldn’t pay for it and it took a lot wrangling to raise the money. But in those days, of course, it was all paid for by cheque and I did it on a Saturday so there was no danger of the cheque bouncing before the Wednesday. So I had three days to raise the money, which I did.”
Then, Monty praised his wife saying, “Sarah has always been an entirely supportive partner in crime. One of the things I always say privately and I should say publicly at every opportunity, it’s her garden as much as mine. This is not my garden, it’s our garden. It’s ‘We’ always.”
He added, “Every significant decision, and quite a few insignificant ones, are made by the pair of us in agreement and we have this principle that both of us have a veto over everything. It’s a very good way to run a system because what it means is, if you disagree, and we do a lot, you can’t do it and say ‘Live with it.”
Monty concluded, “You might have terrible rows, you might have a lot of persuading, it might mean negotiation. It might take two years before that plant goes in the ground, but when it does you’ve agreed. But by and large, we generally agree and sometimes it happens that you agree for a quiet life and then, really irritatingly, you realize they were right all along.”
Below you’ll learn about her age, job, maiden name, and her ex-husband.
Meet Sarah Don, Monty Don Wife
Gardener’s World‘s host Monty Don is married to his wife Sarah Don. They have been married for 39 years after meeting each other at Cambridge University before going on to marry in 1983.
Speaking with Reader’s Digest, Monty shared, “Soon after we met she needed some help with her tiny back garden, so I said I’d cut the grass for her—the lawn wasn’t big enough to merit the purchase of a lawn mower. She left me to it but the only thing I could find to do the job was a pair of scissors. I got down on my hands and knees and had just about finished when she returned. I’ll never forget the look on her face—a look I’ve grown to know well over the last 37 years. It was a mixture of utter disbelief mixed with, dare I say, approval.”
The horticulturalists shared a sweet throwback snap of him and Sarah on their wedding day on 28 July 2022. Monty captioned the post: “We got married 39 years ago today – the picture is a little faded, a little wrinkly, like us but the love is as evergreen and strong now as it was all those years ago.”
He previously described how he used a pair of kitchen scissors to trim Sarah’s whole lawn as a means of seducing her. Monty claimed he was unable to locate the shed’s keys at the time of the romantic gesture and had to improvise. He was willing to spend hours manually mowing the grass in order to impress his future wife. Monty revealed at the time that Sarah believed he was a “romantic fool.”
Monty added, “I met up with my wife and I wooed her by cutting her lawn, with her kitchen scissors, because I couldn’t find the key to the shed that had the lawnmower. She thought then as she does now, I was a fool. But a romantic fool. We were only 25 but we bought a house with the biggest garden we could afford,” he said at the Edinburgh Literary Festival in 2013.
The couple shares three children, Tom, Adam, and Freya, and are even proud grandparents to George and Daisy Rose.
Sarah Don First Husband
In Monty Don’s book The Jewel Garden, he revealed that his wife was “the one”. When they met each other, Sarah was married at the time and it took a divorce “to sort things out”. Monty added, “It took a little time and a divorce to sort things out, but I was right.”
Sarah has also opened up about how she left her first husband for the Gardeners World presenter. She met Monty who was an undergraduate and her ex-hubby was a postgrad at the same college.
“In 1979, I left my well-off husband for this penniless student,” she admitted. “Trying to escape the inevitable mess that we had created, Montagu and I ran away together to the North York Moors, where we were offered rooms in a house for winter.”
Sarah, who refuses to call her now husband by his shorted name, remembered that they settled the rent by riding the owner’s horse every day and painted all the windows as payment. Despite the idyllic love story, she admitted that once they fled, they ran into financial difficulties.
“We now look back on that time as a rich experience,” she said. “But there was a real hardship.”
Later, it was also revealed that Monty and Sarah’s first husband are related. The other finding is a royal connection – that Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar, the guardian of James VI & I, who had been King of Scotland for 36 years when he became King of England and Ireland, was one of Don’s ancestors.
Monty said, “I’m directly related to my wife’s first husband. I didn’t discover that until I made the program. That’s quite extraordinary.”
The fact that her husband was away in Nepal at the time and hadn’t contacted her in three months was in Monty’s favor.
Sarah Don Age
As of September 2022, Sarah Don is 68 years old.
What Is Sarah Don Date Of Birth?
The precise date of Sarah Don’s birth is unclear. However, she was born in February 1954.
Where Is Sarah Don From?
In 2022, Sarah Don is currently residing in Herefordshire, England.
Sarah Don Job
Sarah Don, after she met her husband Monty, started a costume-jewelry business. Monty shared, “We employed 20 people in-house and used hundreds of outworkers. We had a shop in Beauchamp Place, SW1 and we sold in 30 countries, with 60 outlets in America.”
Vogue gave them its seal of approval, and Harrods, Harvey Nichols, and Liberty all stocked their creations. “Costume jewelry has its value entirely from its design and appearance, not from the cost of its materials. Our jewelry is still in the V&A.”
Diana, Princess of Wales, Boy George, and Michael Jackson were among their patrons, and Monty and Sarah were even welcomed to Downing Street. Although she tried to keep a low profile, Sarah was a skilled jeweler and contributed 75% of the creative ideas. Her husband made up the other 25%, was a super-salesman, and was very passionate.
Monty added, “When we were flying, we were really flying. At our best, we were the best in the world at what we did. But we were never quite as successful as our publicity convinced other people – and ourselves – that we were. We were hopelessly under-capitalized and borrowing constantly.”
Since the USA was their main market and its stores canceled the orders for which the Dons had previously hired their own suppliers – and taken out loans – they were completely destroyed by the 1987 Wall Street meltdown. “Our collapse was spectacular. We were all along pretending to be businessmen and now our cover had been blown.”
They managed to settle their debts only by selling their house.
“The jewelry business was good fun for three out of our nine years,” says Monty. “I was working with someone I loved. And I loved the tools and the skills that came with it. We certainly learned a good deal from the whole experience.”
Although the company was a team endeavor, Sarah revealed in their book The Jewel Garden that she frequently felt ignored by clients in comparison to super salesman Monty. “I would spend months working on a creation, drawing, refining, going backward and forwards to the factory, checking samples, sorting out publicly,” she wrote. “It was always a collaboration, though the factory owner who made up our jewelry only seems to listen to Montagu (Monty’s name).”
She added: “I was invisible.”
Now, Sarah helps out her husband with gardening. She has also worked for companies like Flux Media Limited as a designer writer and Secretary at The Monty Project Limited. Moreover, she has also co-authored a few books with her husband.
Sarah Don Net Worth
In 2022, Sarah Don’s net worth should be above £500 thousand.
Related FAQs
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When Is Sarah Don Birthday?
Sarah Don’s birthday is in February.
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What Is Sarah Don Maiden Name?
The maiden name of Sarah Don is Erskine.
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Is Sarah Don On Instagram?
No, Sarah Don doesn’t seem to be on Instagram.
