'TOP GEAR' STAR JEREMY CLARKSON OPENS UP ABOUT HIS 'AGGRESSIVE' CANCER DIAGNOSIS

 

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British television presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that he’s been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of cancer.

Clarkson shared the diagnosis in the final two episodes of Clarkson’s Farm Season 5, which are streaming on Prime Video. In the episodes, he told his co-stars, Charlie Ireland and Kaleb Cooper, “I’ve got cancer.” A shocked Cooper replied, “No, you haven’t. Where?” Clarkson answered, “Where it is is of no concern of anybody. I’ve known since May.”

It was later revealed that Clarkson had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but he said it had been caught early. He explained that he “disappeared off the other week” because he went to the doctor for a “biopsy.” The doctor told him the cancer was “aggressive” but that they’d caught it “really early.”

“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,” he added, per Deadline. “I’m not daft, it’s going to be in about two weeks, maybe three. I’ll have to go and have an operation, and then, the operation is in and out in no time, but your body’s out of action for a little while.”

Clarkson was later seen in the hospital, where he noted that he’d started Season 5 in a “hospital bed” and now “we are at the end of Season 5 and I’m back in a hospital bed.” He also said that “some of the treatment” had “gone awry.”

“What I wanted to say was if this is all successful, I’ll see you for Season 6, and if it isn’t, I won’t,” he added. “Take care, everyone.”

Ahead of the final episodes, Clarkson posted a video on Instagram to share some “somber news,” telling viewers, “Ordinarily we try to keep the show bucolic and charming and cheerful, but two episodes which drop in the middle of the night tonight are, they’re none of those things, really.”

He told his followers that the episodes are “a difficult watch… they’re really, really difficult.”

Clarkson is best known for hosting the British motoring-themed program Top Gear for almost 20 years alongside Richard Hammond and James May. Since 2021, he’s starred in Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video, which follows the host as he attempts to run a farm with no previous farming experience.

- Martin Holmes