Gardeners’ World presenter Adam Frost is best recognised for fronting the long-running BBC programme since 2016 and for his success at the Chelsea Flower Show. Outside of his TV career, the beloved star has opened up about his personal life, including his love for the outdoors, sparked by his childhood spent in his grandparents’ garden.
Adam also lifted the lid on living with a long-term illness after being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia “around 20 years ago”. However, in a surprising admission, the 55-year-old has detailed the real reason he moved out of his family home as a teenager before moving to London to become a landscaper. After being raised in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, Adam revealed he got his first job at the North Devon Parks Department at age 16 after he discovered his parents were swingers.
Speaking on the Loose Ends podcast, the presenter recalled: “I left school at 16 because I’d then moved from London to Devon, and at 16 years old, someone’s not going to like me saying this but my mum and dad decided to do a swap with another couple. So, they were all swapping couples, so I’ve gone, ‘no, it’s not really for me,’ I left home, there you go.”
Today, Adam is married to Sulina Frost, and they share four children, Abi-Jade, Jacob, Amber-Lily, and Oakley. Although the BBC star remains tight-lipped about his marriage, he did share that they had endured some tough times which forced them to re-assess their home life.
In 2022, Adam was suffering from COVID-19 and his wife Sulina was ill in the hospital, where she developed sepsis. His then 15-year-old daughter was diagnosed with an eating disorder. “Her mum was in hospital and she ended up really poorly, she ended up with an eating disorder, like a lot of 15-year-olds, and she had friends going through it at school. So that took its toll.”
Explaining how this led to the family relocating, Adam said: “Probably, in reality for the first time since I was about 16 years old – and realised that my life is slightly chaotic. So as a family, we’ve just decided to scale back, so I can spend more time with them – but it does mean I’ve got a smaller garden.