Bear Grylls says he made friends with Amazon multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos over a snack of maggots.

The adventurer revealed Bezos’s company contacted his Bear Grylls Survival Academy to set up a corporate away day.

The TV star, 47, said: “We had them climbing cliffs, dodging rattlesnakes and even eating maggots – which Jeff was determined to lead the way on. And good for him.

“As the world’s wealthiest man it must be tempting to stop doing the uncomfortable, and change your lifestyle to all caviar.”

Writing in his new autobiography Never Give Up, Grylls adds Bezos, 57, wrote to him afterwards, saying: “We had an absolutely great time with your crew. They had us laughing out loud.

“In addition to all the laughter, I also learned that grubs are delicious and earthworms less so. Jeff.”

Reality TV survival expert Grylls recently admitted he was too ready to kill in his early career.

Speaking to BBC4, he said: “I think in terms of survival and food, definitely in the early days we were killing way too many snakes and stuff like that in the name of survival.

"I’ve moved so far away from that nowadays.

“It’s always about finding carcasses, bugs and grubs. If you look at great survivors, historically they were always the foragers.”

After taking an increasing number of vegan and vegetarian celebrities into the wild in recent years, he added: “I am always super respectful of that.”