Jeremy Clarkson has never been known for remaining too quiet, but the fomer Top Gear and The Grand Tour host no doubt found it a challenge to reveal that he is battling cancer.
Revealed in the final episodes of his Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm, the 66-year-old motoring journalist turned farmer revealed that he was diagnosed with “aggressive” prostate cancer.
Speaking to his Diddly Squat Farm colleagues Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland in an emotional segment, Clarkson revealed the diagnosis during a conversation around the farm’s recent harvest.
“I’ve got cancer,” a clearly emotional Clarkson revealed.
“Where it is of no concern of anybody. I’ve known since May,” he followed up at the time.
“I had a medical, you remember back in May. I disappeared off the other week and I had a biopsy, and it is cancer and it’s aggressive, but it’s really early so the treatment will be, you know.
“I was praying we could get the harvest done and then I could go and get some treatment but it’s going to be slap bang in the middle.”
Later in the series, after returning from an initial surgery, Clarkson revealed that he had 10 percent of his prostate removed, noting: “The prostate, 10 percent of it’s dead, the 10 per cent where the cancer is.”
However, the series ends on a worrying note with Clarkson in a hospital bed once again.
“So we started season five with me in a hospital bed and we are at the end of season five and I’m back in a hospital bed,” Clarkson explains.
“Some of the treatment has gone awry, let’s say, I’m going to be here for a little while. I’m nil by mouth, I don’t know what’s going to happen.
“What I wanted to say was if this is all successful, I’ll see you for season six, and if it isn’t I won’t. Take care everyone.”
Clarkson initially found his footing in the world of television on the original version of Top Gear, on which he was a presenter from 1988-2000.
In 2002, he helped reboot the show alongside Richard Hammond and later James May, helping it amass over 350 million viewers worldwide and inspiring a generation of motoring enthusiasts.
Clarkson left the show in 2015 following an infamous “fracas”, then moving to Amazon Prime with Hammond and May alongside to create The Grand Tour which they presented from 2016-2024.
Since 2021, Clarkson has hosted Clarkson’s Farm, also on Prime, documenting his experience as a start-up farmer in the Costwolds. He has also hosted the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? since 2018.
