Vernon Kay has jokingly told fans that he’s had “a midlife crisis” after revealing his new obsession. Back on hosting duties on his BBC Radio 2 show on Tuesday, the 51-year-old was eager to know what his listeners had been “making, mending, fixing [or] sorting” over the long Bank Holiday weekend.
Revealing what he got up to, Vernon explained he’d been busy tackling his garden with his brand new lawnmower. “I ain’t gonna lie, I’ll be honest with you gang, I’m addicted to the lawnmower, it’s a proper midlife crisis,” he joked.
Addressing his colleagues, who were chuckling in the background, he added: “No, it really is! You’re laughing, Janice and Janine, you’re laughing, once it fires up, it’s a cracker, honest, it’s so good.”
Vernon went on to say that cutting his grass had involved several phases, rather than it being a straightforward single task.
“I’ve learnt that even though you want your grass quite short, you have to do it through stages,” he explained. “Even though the lawnmower that I chose has got a pretty good engine, it does struggle going through the thick, thick, grass.
“So you do it in stages, you raise it up, you lower it down, you lower it down, you lower it down, and now it still looks horrendous because it’s all burnt out, because we’ve had a lot of sunshine, but it’s a lot shorter.
“I can get my sand wedge underneath my golf balls properly now in the back garden, that’s all that matters,” he concluded. Vernon revealed his gardening endeavours have also been praised by his wife of 22 years, Tess Daly, who presents BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
“I got the seal of approval from Strictly Come Dancing’s Tess Daly,” he declared with pride. “[She said], ‘Oh, it looks lovely’.”
Despite initially being informed that achieving striped patterns in the grass wouldn’t be possible with his new equipment, Vernon discovered this wasn’t accurate. “It looks wonderful,” he confirmed.
The broadcaster’s announcement followed his enthusiastic showcase of his new lawnmower on his Instagram page, earlier this week. In the footage, he proceeded to unwrap the equipment in his garden while explaining its features to viewers.
Writing alongside his post, he playfully cautioned his audience that “serious adulting” was incoming and added: “It’s very [spicy] content, so brace yourselves! However, this is only Pt1!! Pt2, ‘The first Pull’ to follow, you’ve been warned.”
Acknowledging supporters’ responses to the footage, he admitted he was expecting “keyboard warriors” to write negative comments, but encountered quite the contrary reaction.
“The joy it gave people of me taking a lawnmower out of a cardboard box was hilarious,” he revealed. “And it started the second time, two pulls and we were away.”