TV icon Jeremy Clarkson has opened up about his mortality, fearing he hasn’t got long to live after a recent health scare landed him in hospital.
The star of “Clarkson’s Farm”, aged 64, who rose to fame as the co-presenter of Top Gear which celebrates its 22-year anniversary today – had a stark realisation about his life expectancy during an interview with the Guardian.
Clarkson remarked in the April interview: “I don’t have long. I’ve probably only got what, 70,000 hours left, maybe?”
His aspirations to lead a healthier lifestyle seemingly took a nosedive following a disastrous attempt at a detox retreat with his girlfriend, Lisa Hogan. Despite regularly indulging in two bottles of wine each night with Hogan, it was the abstemious regime in Portugal that triggered severe ill effects.
She revealed that the juicing diet inflicted such distress on Clarkson that he developed a back abscess necessitating urgent medical care.
The broadcaster’s well-being has been under scrutiny before. In a Sunday Times column, he recounted the exertion of trying to match his son Finlo’s walking speed on their way to Stamford Bridge, which resulted in physical discomfort so intense that it distracted him from the football game.
Clarkson shared his struggle, stating: “When I go with my son to Stamford Bridge, he pootles along at what people call ‘walking pace’ and to keep up I have to unleash my inner Bannister.
“Which means that for the first half of the match, I can’t concentrate on the football because I’m too busy coughing up my spleen and trying to get my breath back.”
With his trademark candour, Clarkson continues to entertain and worry fans in equal measure.
He has also opened up about his concerns over potentially developing dementia, following a health check-up that indicated his hearing problems had “doubled” his risk of the condition.
In an interview with The Times, he shared: “My brain is having to use a huge amount of computing power trying to fill in the bits of speech it hasn’t been able to hear. Which is hard when it’s simultaneously trying to remember where I put my spectacles.”
Despite these worries, Jeremy remains active, continuing work on his popular Amazon series, Clarkson’s Farm.