The Clarkson’s Farm star has offered his farming services to any famous new neighbours such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
What did you miss?
Kaleb Cooper has had plenty of experience in dealing with demanding celebrity clients, having spent the last few years as Jeremy Clarkson’s farm manager.
So rather than getting annoyed at reports of big stars buying up property and land in the Cotswolds countryside, the Clarkson’s Farm star has spotted an opportunity for extra work.
Cooper, who recently welcomed his third child, also told Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, 10 September, about a recent run-in with JD Vance and why the US vice president had annoyed him so much.
What, how and why?
Beyonce and Jay-Z are the latest celebrities rumoured to be house hunting in the Cotswolds, and with some locals having grown frustrated with the chaos that superstar visits can bring to the countryside, Good Morning Britain host Ed Balls wanted to get Cooper’s view on the issue.
Balls asked him on Wednesday morning’s show: “What’s it like farming there when you’ve got all these celebrities buying up the properties and muscling people out of the way, like Ellen (DeGeneres) or Hugh Grant, they say Beyonce, Jeremy Clarkson, all these celebrities turning up?”
But business-savvy Cooper had already spotted an opportunity as he diplomatically replied: “I don’t really see them, and it don’t really affect me in any way. All I can say is, if they want help with their farm, they know where I am.”
However, one famous tourist that Jeremy Clarkson’s farm manager seemed less keen to deal with was US vice president JD Vance, who enjoyed a summer holiday in the Cotswolds in August.
Vance and his family stayed in the sleepy hamlet of Dean, but with a motorcade of 18 vehicles, the traffic issues his visit brought angered locals even more than the tailbacks for visitors to Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farmshop. Protesters lined the streets during his visit, and Cooper admitted that he had also been put out by Vance’s arrival.
He said: “If (Vance) drove round in a VW Polo, I’m sure no one would know who he was and he would have had a lovely holiday and every single local would have had a lovely time as well. But when you travel around with 30 security guards, I think it’s quite hard to get anywhere.
“There was an incident where he blocked the tractor, and I wasn’t too happy about it.”
Kaleb Cooper shares hopes and fears for farming future
Cooper became a father for the third time just three weeks ago, and told Good Morning Britain that he would love his children to become farmers too.
He said, “I hope so, it would be great to have them follow in my footsteps, but I never want to push my kids into something they don’t want to do.
“I’m a firm believer that if you wake up and go I’ve got to go to work today, I think you’re firmly in the wrong job. I wake up and go, right, what am I doing today? Therefore, I know I’m in the right job.”
Cooper added of his four-year-old and two-year-old: “I get them involved as much as I can, of course, there’s a danger aspect to that, but my kids are very respectful of everything they see, including machinery and cows.”
But Cooper shared his fears that there may not be much of a farming industry for his kids to join in the future, following tough times for farmers recently.
“Farming on a yearly basis is getting harder and harder,” he said. “We’ve had two incredibly bad years. Last year was bad in terms of too much rain; this year, we’ve not had enough rain.
“I don’t believe many farmers are going to survive that. We can survive one bad year, but two bad years on the run is hard work. At the same time, it’s amazing…it’s something I love doing.”
Good Morning Britain airs on ITV1 at 6am on weekdays.
