Jeremy Clarkson’s devastating health battles – ‘days to live’ warning to dementia fears

Jeremy Clarkson, who celebrates his birthday on Saturday, has fought his fair share of health battles over the years

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who celebrates his 66th birthday today (Saturday, April 11) is one of Britain’s most recognisable television stars.

From his early success of car shows like Top Gear and then The Grand Tour to more recent offerings like Clarkson’s Farm, he is never far from our TV screens.

Jeremy has also spoken candidly about his health and his mortality, keeping his legions of fans informed about the various health issues he’s suffered from over the last few years.

This includes him making a sombre admission about the end of his life, a horror health battle leaving him with just “days to live” and his dementia fears.
Days to live’
Jeremy was reportedly given “just days to live” after a horrifying health battle saw him rushed to the operating table for emergency heart surgery. Jeremy suffered the ordeal during a holiday in the Seychelles in 2024
He remembered feeling clammy with other symptoms including tightness in his chest and pins and needles in his left arm. He ended up having two stents fitted to unblock arteries to his heart. Doctors reportedly warned him he would have died within days without treatment.

The TV star admitted he could not walk up a set of stairs “without holding someone’s hand”. After getting home from the hospital he thought: “Crikey, that was close.”

Writing in the Sun at the time, he said: “Now, thanks to all those tremendous people at the John Radcliffe [Hospital] in Oxford and all of their extraordinary machines, here I am wondering what water tastes like and if it’s possible to make celery interesting.”
Dementia fears
Jeremy has been plagued by ear issues for more than a decade but he was horrified when he discovered there is a connection between hearing loss and dementia.

A routine check-up revealed he had “doubled the chance” of being diagnosed with dementia due to his hearing issues.

He wrote in the Times: “My brain is having to use a huge amount of computing power trying to fill in the bits of speech it hasn’t been able to hear. Which is hard when it’s simultaneously trying to remember where I put my spectacles.”

The NHS says the risk of developing dementia almost doubles if you have an untreated mild hearing loss.

Jeremy was later fitted with a set of hearing aids which he hopes will improve the issue.
End-of-life admission
The ex-Top Gear star made a sombre end-of-life admission as he revealed the plans for his funeral.

Jeremy joked he will pass on “all my trousers” to former Top Gear colleague Richard Hammond, who is almost a foot shorter than him.

The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter admitted he had been contemplating post-life arrangements because ‘dying in this day and age is unbelievably complicated’.

He said: “Eventually, I had everything planned out. All 23 minutes of Supper’s Ready by Genesis would be played at my funeral.”
Secret cyst removed
Jeremy revealed that he checked himself out of a luxury retreat he was enjoying with girlfriend Lisa Hogan to have a secret cyst removed.

The 5cm cyst was on the TV presenter’s back. The surgery was successful and the cyst wasn’t cancerous.

Speaking in the Sun, he said: “Lisa took me to a health farm and, well, it was so miserable there that I thought, ‘I’ve got to have this cyst taken out at some point, I may as well go now.

“I checked out of the whole place and checked into hospital, because it was more fun having an operation than eating juniper berries all day long. As I lay under the surgeon’s knife, I thought ‘this is preferable’.”

Premature death fears
The TV star quit smoking almost 10 years but turned to chewing nicotine gum to satisfy his cravings. But in 2023, doctors told him chewing the gum was causing his blood pressure to skyrocket.
Jeremy told the Sun: “For most of my adult life, stern-faced doctors warned me that if I didn’t give up smoking, I would suffer from an agonising and premature death.

“So six years ago I bit the bullet and replaced my 40-a-day habit with sheet after sheet of full-strength nicotine gum.

“And this week a doctor said it’s causing a worrying rise in my blood pressure and that if I don’t pack it in soon, I will suffer from an agonising and premature death.”