Jeremy Clarkson: Everything we know about the Top Gear presenter throughout his decades-long career
Jeremy Clarkson was born in 1960
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson was born on 11 April 1990 in Doncaster.
His parents were working class
Jeremy's mother, Shirley, was a teacher, and his father, Edward, was a travelling salesman.
His parents put him through private school
Jeremy Clarkson's parents put his name down for private schools but did not have the money to pay the fees.
They sold Paddington Bears to pay the fees
Jeremy Clarkson's parents made Paddington Bears for their son and daughter, Joanna, and sold them to pay their children's school fees.
Jeremy Clarkson hated school
The TV presenter explained he hated his time at Repton School:
‘I was thrown on an hourly basis into the ice plunge pool, dragged from my bed in the middle of the night and beaten, made to lick the lavatories clean and all the usual humiliations that... turn a small boy into a gibbering, sobbing, suicidal wreck... they glued my records together, snapped my compass, ate my biscuits, defecated in my tuck box and they cut my trousers in half.’
He was expelled from school
Jeremy Clarkson was eventually expelled from Repton School for ‘drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself’.
He started working as a travelling salesman
Jeremy Clarkson started his career as a travelling salesman for his parents' company.
He then trained as a journalist
Jeremy Clarkson later became a journalist, writing for several local newspapers.
He founded a press agency
In 1984, Jeremy Clarkson founded the Motoring Press Agency, in which he conducted road tests for local newspapers and motoring magazines.
He is still a columnist
Jeremy Clarkson regularly writes a column for The Sun and the Sunday Times.
Jeremy Clarkson first appeared on TV in 1988
Jeremy Clarkson first appeared on television in the motoring program Top Gear in 1988. The producer hired him after Clarkson went on a 20-minute rant about the awfulness of the Citroen 2CV.
Top Gear became the most watched show on BBC Two
Together with Richard Hammond and James May, Jeremy Clarkson presented Top Gear until 2015. Since its beginning, it became the most watched TV show on BBC Two.
His ancestor was a famous inventor
Jeremy Clarkson appeared on the first ever episode of Who Do You Think You Are? during which he discovered his great-great-great-grandfather, John Kilner, invented the Kilner jar, a fruit container.
He won a National Television Award
In 2007, Jeremy Clarkson won a National Television Award, in particular the Special Recognition Award.
Jeremy Clarkson was fired from the BBC
In 2015, the BBC announced Jeremy Clarkson would not return to Top Gear after he allegedly verbally assaulted a member of the production team.
The trio remained together through the years
When Jeremy Clarkson was fired, his co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May announced they would not continue the show without him.
They started a new show together
The famous trio moved on to present The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video.
Jeremy Clarkson has been married twice
The TV presenter has been married twice and has got three children.
His first wife was Alex Hall
Jeremy Clarkson married Alex Hall in 1989. Only two years later, she left him for one of his friends, something she says she regretted almost instantly:
'I can't go into that because I have to think of my children and other people, but leaving Jeremy was the biggest mistake of my life. I still love him I always have but I believed that if you make your bed you've got to lie in it.'
He got married again in 1993
Two years after his painful split, Jeremy Clarkson married Frances Cain, who was also his manager at the time.
The couple had three children together
Jeremy and Frances Clarkson went on to welcome three children together: Emily, Finlo and Katya.
He was accused of having an affair
In 1999, his ex-wife Alex Hall claimed she had an affair with him for ten years following their separation. Jeremy Clarkson firmly denied these accusations and the two fought in court.
Jeremy and Frances got a divorce in 2014
After more than twenty years together and three children, Jeremy Clarkson and Frances Cain announced they were getting a divorce in 2014.
He left his second wife for another woman
Amid their divorce, rumour had it Jeremy Clarkson had left his wife Frances because he developped feelings for another woman.
He dated Philippa Sage for 3 years
The other woman was none other than his personal assistant on Top Gear, Philippa Sage. The couple remained together for about three years.
He then fell in love with Lisa Hogan
Jeremy Clarkson's most famous partner is probably his current girlfriend, Lisa Hogan.
Jeremy and Lisa have been together for seven years
Jeremy Clarkson met Lisa Hogan, an Irish model and actress, in 2017.
They moved to the countryside together
Three years after they started dating, Jeremy Clarkson and Lisa Hogan moved to the Cotswolds and bought a farm.
They also work together
The couple's farm, the Diddly Squat Farm, is the topic of Jeremy Clarkson's new Amazon Prime series called Clarkson's Farm, in which Lisa Hogan appears regularly.
Lisa Hogan has no intention of being wife n°3 yet
In a recent interview, Lisa Hogan was asked if she was planning on marrying Jeremy Clarkson, to which she answered:
‘Mrs Clarkson? No, thank you, I like Lisa Hogan.’
