Gardeners’ World host Adam Frost has shared his personal battle that left him in immense pain.

The 55-year-old professional gardener has been grappling with fibromyalgia, a chronic syndrome known for causing widespread pain and fatigue.

He first noticed the symptoms two decades ago as he also struggled to sleep.

First joining BBC Gardeners’ World as a co-presenter with Monty Don in 2016, Adam also recounted how his love for gardening aided him during a dark period of depression, even leading to sessions with a psychiatrist.

Reflecting on the advice he received from the sessions, he told the Daily Mail: “What came out of it was that I shouldn’t retire. He told me I’d be dead in 18 months… ‘If you’re thinking about retiring, go up the high street, there’s an undertakers, go in and choose yourself a box.'”

Recalling the psychiatrist’s unexpected counsel, Adam noted: “And I thought: ‘You’re supposed to be helping me.’ It was brilliant.

“Why would I retire? Retire and do what? Garden? At least this way I get paid for it.”

Speaking about his health diagnosis, he said, “It started 20 years ago. I had sharp pain all over the place, I wasn’t sleeping. I was absolutely shattered.”

He was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia and made a documentary about the condition.

Adam also suffered a family crisis when his wife Sulina became ill, leaving her hospitalised for 12 weeks in 2021.

The Gardeners’ World presenter was the only person allowed to visit his other half.

“Then I caught Covid. I went into a room on my own for ten days and my brain, all the adrenaline I’d been living on – everything came crashing down. I was sitting in a corner bawling my eyes out,” he recalled.

Adam shared he went to see a doctor who urged the gardening expert to be “kinder to yourself”.