Alan Titchmarsh and his wife, Alison, have entered an exciting new phase of their lives. The couple, who married in 1975, share two daughters, Polly and Camilla, and they recently sold their Grade II-listed Hampshire home to be closer to them. Now the proud owners of a smaller Surrey abode, Alan and Alison have settled comfortably into village life.
Moving to the Same Village
Speaking with House Beautiful in April, the BBC star said, "We've just moved into the same village as our two daughters. We weren't intending to move, but we found this amazing house, so we're all now in the same village."
Alan added, "I'd like to say we're not chasing them – they're hauling us in."
"The house is wonderfully modern and completely different from the Georgian farmhouse where we were before," he continued. "We're refusing to use the B word. It's a single-story dwelling that's quite long, but we're refusing to use the B-word because we have five steps! It's a different way of life and quite exciting. It's liberating."
Family Time and Fatherhood Reflections
For Alan, family is everything, and by moving closer to Polly and Camilla, both he and Alison are able to visit their four grandchildren more often, too. "We don't meet up every weekend, but because our daughters are so close now, we meet several times a week," the father-of-two told House Beautiful.
Back in 2010, the Love Your Garden star opened up about his parenting journey in an interview with The Guardian. "Having a family can be a rude awakening for some people but it wasn't like that for me. I've absolutely loved it and I still do," Alan raved.
"You get these people who say, 'Wait for the terrible twos,' and, yes, they've had the odd flounce, but they've got increasingly joyful to be around. My wife Alice and I are very close to them and value their company hugely."
Reflecting on Parenting and Worries
Reflecting on his personal approach as a father, Alan mused, "I'm fairly unrestrained in my affection for my children. My parents weren't effusive in their affection. It makes them sound as though they were cold, and they weren't remotely cold – they were warm."
A doting dad, Alan, 77, has remarked that he's never stopped worrying about his girls, no matter how old they get. "Fathers of sons have expectations. Fathers of daughters have worries. You worry about them all the time," he told The Times.
"I mean, not in a paranoid way, because I delighted in their company and they're now mums themselves and I've got four grandchildren. But you're only as happy as your unhappiest child and that spreads to grandchildren as well."
