Gardeners’ World star Adam Frost shared a poignant message about his wife and daughter’s devastating health battles.
The BBC presenter, 56, who is part of the Gardeners’ World presenting team alongside Monty Don, became ill with coronavirus in 2021, as well as suffering burnout and depression.
Just before that, his wife Sulina contracted sepsis and spent a debilitating three months in hospital. Their daughter, then 15, also developed an eating disorder around that time.
Adam has now reflected on the tough period in their family, which led to them downsizing in 2022 to a smaller home in Lincolnshire.
“When life isn’t dealing the cards that I want to play with, the garden is where I go,” the garden designer told iNews.
“Five years ago, the wheels came off as Mrs Frost and one of the kids became poorly. We had this huge house with a big outdoor space that I was totally disengaged with, so we moved and simplified life.”
Adam explained that taking charge of a new garden helped all of them heal in different ways.
“Reconnecting with a smaller garden was incredibly cathartic. I watched my wife get better as we created it together,” he said.
“My biggest problem at the moment is that I don’t want to be anywhere other than my garden.”
Adam met Sulina in the 1990s while she was working as a manager at John Lewis. They share four children: Abi-Jade, Jacob, Amber-Lily, and Oakley.
They moved to a Grade II-listed 18th-century farmhouse with a two and a half acre garden to “downsize”, before moving again, in October 2025, to a different location with three of their kids.
Adam - who joined Gardeners’ World in 2016 - previously reflected on Sulina’s sepsis battle during an appearance on Lorraine in 2023.
“My [tough time in the pandemic] was borne from Mrs Frost ending up in hospital,” he said.
“Bless her she was in there for 11-12 weeks and I could go in there for an hour a day. And then going home and telling four kids everything was fine.”
He added: “During that time, child number three, she ended up with an eating disorder partly out of that. But we slowly got through that.
“Then 10 days later I got locked in a room with Covid and sat in front of a head doctor telling me, ‘You’ve got burn out and depression.’
“And I’m going, ‘Really? I only went in the room with Covid.' It was really weird because the garden at the time wasn’t doing what it should do for me.”
The gardening expert said they got back on track at their new house with its smaller garden and Sulina made a full recovery.
Adam reflected on their 26-year relationship earlier this month, joking that Sulina is a tough critic but approved of his latest professional venture - a podcast called Outsiding about gardening with author Caitlin Moran.
"I've not watched it, but my daughter has watched it three times and even my wife has watched it,” the horticulturalist said on BBC Radio 2.
Caitlin remarked: "And your wife praised you, which is rare apparently."
Frost agreed: "Very rare. Last night we got in bed and she said, 'I'm proud of you'."
When O’Leary said that was a wonderful thing to hear, Frost joked that compliments are sparse in their 26-year relationship.
"25 or 26 years together mate, that's probably the third time,” he said, laughing.
"It was like, 'Woah, I feel slightly uncomfortable now', what have I done? But yeah, no [it's] magical.”
Alongside his mental health issues, Frost lives with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and cognitive difficulties. It affects around 2.5 million people in the UK.
"The reality is, I'm 20 years on so yeah I've got it, but I deal with it,” he said of the condition last year.
"I manage it through fitness really to be honest, and trying to find a little balance of life, which is not always that easy, but yeah, [I'm] good."
