Jeremy Clarkson’s has addressed the toll his new pub venture took on his health.
The 65-year-old star was attempting to open his pub The Farmer’s Dog at the same time as trying to harvest crops on his farm, resulting in an unmanageable workload.
Jeremy confessed he was working 20, even “24 hours sometimes” and “literally round the clock” on both projects.
He went on to say about the impact it had on him: “I like hard work. If I don’t do something constructive in a day I can’t really get to sleep that night. But that was silly, and it did actually mess my heart up.”
The former Top Gear host continued: “It’s very stressful running a pub. It’s more stressful than running a farm.
“You’re on your own on the farm, which is why there’s so much unhappiness in farming, because you’re dealing with it all on your own.
“The benefit is you don’t worry about other people, whereas with the pub, you’ve probably got 80 people working there. So it requires more attention running a pub.”
Jeremy revealed how he was even advised by people in the hospitality industry not to open a pub because it was “too stressful” and there’s “absolutely no money in it”, with them warning he would actually lose money.
Jeremy’s health admission comes as he revealed he had a scary hospital dash last year, where he was “days from death” and underwent emergency heart surgery with two stents fitted.
He had been on holiday at the time and was attempting to dive into the Indian Ocean when he ended up hitting the water awkwardly in a bellyflop.
After returning home, he started experiencing symptoms including clamminess, pins and needles in his left arm and chest tightness, resulting in him going to hospital and undergoing an operation.
Jeremy was awake for the angioplasty procedure and told The Sunday Times: “It’s weird, lying there and feeling a metal pipe with a camera on the end wiggling its way round your shoulder and through your chest.”
He now undergoes a thorough annual health check, revealing they take up to eight hours, including a prostate examination to check for cancer.
Season four of Clarkson’s Farm saw Clarkson and the Diddly Squat Farm team attempting to get his new pub business off the ground, with the project hitting multiple hurdles and red tape along the way.
Even after its opening, The Farmer’s Dog faced some teething problems with staff walking out. But it appears since then, the business has been thriving and welcoming customers through its doors.
Reflecting on his vision for The Farmer’s Dog pub, Jeremy said: “At the core of my pub is a place where you could go and just for an hour or so, forget your troubles, which is the point of a pub.”
