BBC star reveals he left home at 16 after parents 'couple swapped' (2025)

Gardeners’ World star Adam Frost has revealed he moved out of home at 16 after his parents became swingers.

The 56-year-old garden designer is best known for his successes at the Chelsea Flower Show and presenting on the long-running BBC programme, which has been on air since 1968.

He’s previously spoken about leaving home young to start working, with his first job being with the North Devon Parks Department before moving to London to work as a landscaper.

However, Adam has now shared the unique reason he moved out when he was still a teenager.

‘I left school at 16 because I’d ben 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,’ he said on the Loose Ends podcast.

‘So, they were all swapping couples, so I’ve gone, “no, it’s not really for me”.

‘I left home. There you go.’

Last year Adam spoke about being diagnosed with a health condition after experiencing ‘throbbing’ pain in his body two decades ago.

Although doctors initially struggled to find the cause of his ‘very odd’ pain, he was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body and other symptoms including fatigue, muscle stiffness and increased sensitivity to pain, according to the NHS.

‘For almost two years, I was sent from pillar to post as doctors struggled to identify what was causing me to be so unwell,’ he shared on Morning Live.

‘Finally, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. It was a huge relief for about five minutes and then it was another twelve months of going on this journey of understanding to eventually getting some sort of treatment.

‘Today has invoked an awful lot of emotion inside of me and I know there’s a lot of classic symptoms with fibromyalgia, but you do get the sense that everybody’s experience is slightly different. But to think the research that is being done, and we could be getting closer to a cure for me. That is absolutely amazing.’

Gardeners’ World is streaming on BBC iPlayer.

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