Monty Don reveals plan to quit Gardeners' World in bombshell move

ok.co.uk:

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.