Monty Don has revealed he will eventually quit Gardeners' World, as he hopes his replacement will be a green-fingered female.
The 68-year-old has starred on the BBC programme for the last two decades but says he expects to step down within the next five years.
Speaking about who would replace him, Monty shared his hopes for it to be someone more representative of the current generation.
In an interview with The Guardian, he confirmed he has plans to move on from the programme, but doesn’t know exactly when.
He said: "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.
"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."
Monty went on to say that having another ‘wealthy countryside-dweller’ type on the gardening show would be 'out of touch'.
Addressing his unlikely title as a sex symbol, the presenter said it’s something he finds "embarrassing.”
Monty also spoke about the heartbreak he faced over losing his beloved dog, which left him unable to film an episode of Gardeners' World last month.
Monty took to social media to pay tribute to his “much-missed” pooch Brenda in a touching post on International Dog Day.
He replied to a tweet from the programme's account, which showed a heart-warming snap of his pet looking out over a wheelbarrow.
Confirming she has sadly passed away, he wrote: "Ah, a lovely picture of Brenda. Much missed."
Fans were quick to show their support for Brenda, who was one of two miniature dachshunds he kept at Longmeadow, with the rarely seen pups staying away from the limelight.
The horticulturist is known to be a dog lover and often offers gardening advice to viewers while in the company of his not-so-camera-shy two golden retrievers, Ned and Nellie.
He is also occasionally joined by his Yorkshire terrier Patti on the BBC2 programme.
Animal-mad Monty also previously lost his beloved pooch Nigel, in May 2020 at the age of 12 years old. But last year he found comfort in welcoming new pup Ned.
Speaking before his pets had been introduced, Monty joked: "I haven’t told Nellie or Patti yet…" before he added, "So it remains to be seen whether the three dogs will be best buds!"
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