Alan Titchmarsh, 75, was prompted to reveal an intimate confession about his marriage after hearing fans had complained about the lack of sex in his book, The Gift, which was released in 2022.
The ITV presenter and gardener is also a best-selling novelist, and was known for including some steamy love scenes between his characters. However, during a live Q&A with The Telegraph about his recent fiction book, interviewer Bunny Guinness quizzed him on why those scenes had seemingly become more tame.
She told Alan in the unearthed chat from 2022: “To start with, you did have a bit of sex in your books, dare we say. But have you almost been bullied out of the sex scenes?”
The author sheepishly explained: “There’s one thing, Bunny, that happens to you when you write a novel is that, in my case, you do the audiobook as well and when it comes to the audiobook, it’s you in a little tiny booth with a big microphone and a pair of earphones.
“And it’s quite dark, and there’s a big sheet of glass, and on the other side of that is a sound recordist, and he’s generally male, he’s generally large, and he’s generally bearded… it does put you off a bit.
Disagreeing that he completely shied away from more racy plot lines in The Gift, Alan pointed out one intimate moment in the book: “I still write… there’s a sensuous…”
Bunny then interjected: “Well, a bit of breast fondling and then it’s straight out looking at the sheep!”
“Well, that’s life, isn’t it?” Alan chuckled in response, to which Bunny admitted: “I was disappointed, I was hoping we were going to have some squidgy bits… I think you’ve got very cautious.”
Alan replied: “I’m sorry I short-changed you, they’ve all gone in droves now - they’re not going to read it because it’s not saucy enough!
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“I don’t fight shy of showing when two people are physically attracted to one another, and I think too many authors do, but people are frightened - they’ll do horror, they’ll do murder and ghastly things, but they’re dead scared of doing [love scenes] unless it’s Jackie Collins.”
Bunny then brought up the fact that Alan was formerly a runner-up in the infamous Literary Review Bad Sex Award, telling the star: “After that, people are disappointed that they haven’t had so much sex Alan, I’m afraid, a lot of people say that!”
Poking fun at himself for the change in his writing, Alan hinted that “art is mirroring life”, seemingly referencing a decrease in intimacy in his own marriage with wife Alison.
He laughed: “Maybe it’s as I get older and art is mirroring life!”
Alan and Alison have been married for almost 50 years. They share two grown-up daughters and four grandchildren.
The couple tend to keep their personal lives out of the spotlight, with Alan previously sharing on James O'Brien's Full Disclosure podcast: “My family is private.
"I was talking to somebody in broadcasting the other day and he said, ‘we don’t know anything about your family except you’ve got a wife and two daughters and we know their names’.
“I said, ‘yeah, but that’s enough isn’t it really?’ They have their lives. They are not my props.”
