Gardeners' World's Frances Tophill clears up 'confusion' over personal life in rare update

Gardeners' World star Frances Tophill has cleared up some "confusion" over her personal life as she names the locations where her "heart is".

Born in Deal, Kent, Frances studied at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland, before relocating to Exeter in Devon. She developed a love of gardening when she was younger, having been given a planter by her mum when she was seven.

She joined Gardeners' World in 2016, presenting segments about vegetable seed trials and gardens in extreme locations. The hit BBC show has seen the presenter flicking between both Kent and Devon.

Frances says this has left fans scratching their heads. Speaking on the Gardeners' World podcast, she revealed viewers often believe she has only recently relocated to Devon.

She explained: "I've always been very torn. I grew up on the coast in Kent, near Dover, lived up in Scotland, then went down to Devon. People get very confused about the journey of my life because sometimes I'm in Kent, sometimes I'm in Devon.

"But Gardeners' World made it sound like I'd just moved to Devon. I've actually been in Devon for 12 years and just popped back to Kent for a couple of years to have a little bit of a reassess, and then went back to Devon.

"My heart is in all of those places. I'm a Kent girl, and I always will be, and there's things about Kent that I miss.

"I miss the marshes, the big skies, the flatness. And there are things about Scotland I miss that are the opposite, the mountains, the wilderness, and a lot of my friends who live up there."

Frances went on to explain a lot of her friends remain in Scotland while her family are still based in Kent. But she believes Devon strikes "a balance" between the two.

She added: "You have the coastline, you have not quite mountains but Dartmoor, which is as near as you're going to get in the south of England, and then the beauty of the valleys and temperate rainforest and the lovely soil.

"That was one of the main reasons I chose to move back to Devon. I had my allotment in Kent and then I got to the top of the waiting list for the allotment in Devon and I went down to see that and it had such nice soil, I was like 'I'm moving back to Devon'."

Frances will be presenting Gardeners' World on BBC One tonight from 8pm. Based from Powderham Castle in Exminster, she will be teaching gardeners how to help tackle the decline of pollinators and butterflies.