Jeremy Clarkson has reflected on his deteriorating health while filming season four of Clarkson’s Farm.
The former Top Gear host, 65, had two stents fitted in his heart during emergency surgery in October after doctors discovered two vital arteries were blocked.
He has now recalled feeling “knackered” and “more and more ill” while filming the latest series of his Amazon Prime show on his Cotswolds farm.
“You can see me becoming more and more ill as the days go on, because I just lose my sense of humour, lose my ability to stay calm,” he told The Sun.
“I get in a proper old panic. I didn’t know at the time. I knew I wasn’t being me. Because if you don’t sleep, it very quickly has an effect.”
Clarkson recalled his difficulties in trying to get his pub, The Farmer’s Dog, open for the August bank holiday weekend last year while also collecting the harvest at his farm.
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“I was coming back knackered from a day trying to get the pub open, and having to get straight into the tractor to do grain carting through the night,” he said.
Clarkson recently revealed he was “days from death” before he had heart surgery late last year.
The Grand Tour star was rushed to hospital in Oxford after experiencing symptoms including clamminess, chest tightness, and pins and needles in his left arm.
Speaking to The Sunday Times about the initial signs of trouble, he recalled a recent holiday to the Seychelles, shortly before the health scare.
He said: "I always try and dive off a boat on every holiday because at my age you never know when your last dive is going to be, or your last anything, for that matter."
However, realising midway through a dive - which turned into a belly flop - that his body was struggling, Clarkson added: "When I finally reached the beach my lungs were full of water and I realised I can't do it anymore."
On returning to his home in Chadlington, Oxfordshire, he began experiencing the symptoms that led to his hospital dash. Doctors later told him he had been just days away from death.
Clarkson described the "wearisome effects of growing old," adding: "It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way."
Following his surgery, Clarkson said having the stents fitted, which improve blood flow and prevent future heart attacks, "wasn't especially painful. Just odd." He admitted he has since thought: "Crikey, that was close."
Doctors advised Clarkson to give up high-fat and processed foods and exercise regularly. He now plays pickleball to keep fit and has adopted a new “mono diet”.
The motoring journalist has also cut back on alcohol and has experimented with weight-loss medication.
