The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is back, and gardening expert Rachel de Thame is among the BBC team covering the annual event. The TV star is presenting part of the BBC's coverage from the 2026 show, alongside Monty Don and Sophie Raworth.
Early Career as Model and Actress
While Rachel has made a name for herself in horticulture with presenting slots on shows like Gardeners' World, she actually started out as a model and actress. Raised near North London, she initially studied ballet at the Royal Ballet School but contracted glandular fever at age 15 and gave up her dream of a dancing career at 19. She then studied drama and History of Art, working at an art dealers in London.
While pregnant with her first child, Rachel was recruited by a modelling agency and enjoyed a successful modelling career. Casting agents suggested her for acting roles, and by 1998, she had appeared in the mini-series Merlin and the British feature film Bodywork. Merlin starred Sam Neill and recounted the wizard's life in mythic Britain, loosely adapted from the legendary tales of Camelot.
Following these roles, Rachel decided to follow her passion for horticulture. In the late '90s, she enrolled at the English Gardening School and later began presenting on BBC's Gardening World.
Family Life
In 1986, Rachel married her first husband, Stephen Colover, with whom she had two children, Lauren and Joe. They divorced in the early '90s, and Rachel later married Gerard de Thame, welcoming two daughters, Emma and Olivia. Her daughter Lauren is a talented illustrator who provided drawings for Rachel's book, A Flower Garden for Pollinators.
Breast Cancer Diagnosis
In 2018, Rachel was diagnosed with breast cancer. Writing for The Times, she detailed her experience: “While one is grateful to have options, treatment is no walk in the park. Strangely, though, I’ve also found that there are compensations. Top of the list is a renewed, almost desperate desire to get on with some of the things that for too long have lingered on a mental to-do list.” She added, “When you’ve felt rocked to your foundations, the only sensible thing is to get on with living.”
Rachel’s cancer was caught early, and she took a leave of absence from Gardeners' World while undergoing treatment. She told the BBC, “I’m doing well and coming towards the end of it. It’s caught early so that’s all very positive, so on the whole it’s better not to be working too much just now.”
RHS Chelsea Flower Show coverage airs on BBC One, BBC Two, and BBC iPlayer.
