In his Sunday Times column, Jeremy Clarkson talks about all sorts of topics, well beyond cars. His deteriorating health is certainly not among his favorite subjects, but such is life when you’re aging and carrying more weight than you’re supposed to. On day four of his vacation on a small island in the Indian Ocean, Jezza suffered a few setbacks in rapid succession.
What happened? After having breakfast, Clarkson had problems standing up: “I had to take a moment to make sure my limbs were working properly.” Hours later, he jumped from a boat to swim to the beach but “hit the water like a labrador. It was an almighty belly flop, and when you have a belly the size of mine, that causes the sort of pain you measure in acres.”
The rest of the day was just as bad as he struggled swimming, barely making it to the beach: “There was more water in my lungs than there is in Lake Superior, and I was mostly dead.” Clarkson goes on to say he had problems going down the stairs without someone holding his hand. It all happened within the same day, so the former Top Gear and The Grand Tour host decided to rest up for the rest of his vacation, sitting in a chair while eating cheese and drinking wine.
He “naturally ignored” the red flags after heading back home, even after noticing a tightness in his chest. The situation went south, and he had to be rushed over to the hospital in an ambulance. Doctors at the John Radcliffe Hospital initially wanted to send him home since they didn’t notice any signs of a potential heart attack. Before letting him go, a “senior doctor” put Clarkson in an MRI machine where they discovered he had one completely blocked heart artery while another one was almost clogged as well.
The star of Clarkson’s Farm underwent two-hour emergency surgery. Thankfully, he didn’t need a heart bypass. The 64-year-old presenter now promises to take better care of himself by trying “to make celery interesting” and by finding out what “water tastes.”
Before the final road trip for the Grand Tour aired, he admitted that he’s “too old and fat to get into the cars that I like and not interested in driving those I don’t.” Hopefully, the British journalist gets in better shape and will continue to do Clarkson’s Farm for many years.