Jeremy Clarkson responds to ‘£100m Bill Gates farm takeover’
Jeremy Clarkson has dismissed rumours that Bill Gates is trying to buy and take over his Cotswolds farm in Oxfordshire for £100m.
The former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter bought Diddly Squat Farm in Chadlington, then known as Curdle Hill, back in 2008.
North of Chipping Norton, the spot is the primary filming location for all four series of Clarkson’s Farm as well as the upcoming fifth season of the Prime Video show.
Diddly Squat has become the focus of a flurry of viral videos and posts in recent months, alleging that Mr Gates is aiming to purchase the land.
According to the online speculation, the Microsoft co-founder has mounted a £100 million bid to take over the Cotswolds spot.
One clip framed the saga as a battle between “the farmer and the billionaire”, claiming Mr Gates-linked interests had been circling.
Now, Mr Clarkson has responded to the rumours for the first time, in an exchange with a fan on the social media site X.
The user tagged the 65-year-old in a post with a video on the matter attached, which had been AI-generated.
They said: “This doesn’t sound like you. The cadence and some accents sound off. Am I just suspicious of AI? Or is this genuinely your video?”
Mr Clarkson bluntly responded: “Everything on the internet is b*****ks.”
The rumours come against the backdrop of mounting public interest in who owns agricultural land, and in particular, the role of wealthy investors.
Mr Gates has become the largest private farmland owner in the United States, with tens of thousands of hectares under his control through various entities.
Clarkson’s Farm series five is expected to be released later this year after filming on episodes wrapped last September.
