Clarkson: I thought I would die in a plastic tent because I’m fat and smoked so much
JEREMY CLARKSON feared that he would die on his own ‘in a lonely plastic tent’ after contracting Covid-19.
Writing in The Sunday Times, the former Top Gear star admitted how scared he was after testing positive for the virus four days before Christmas.
Mr Clarkson was forced to selfisolate over the holidays after waking up with a dry cough that forced him to take a coronavirus test.
He wrote: ‘With every illness I’ve had, there has always been a sense that medicine and time would eventually ride to the rescue, but with Covid-19 you have to lie there, on your own, knowing that medicine is not on its way and that time is your worst enemy.’
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter, 60, also said he thought his ‘unhealthy’ lifestyle would make it difficult for him to fight the virus, explaining: ‘The doctor was very clear: I’d feel under the weather for between five and 14 days and then I’d either get better or I’d have to go to hospital.
‘Where, because I am 60 and fat, and because I’ve smoked half a million cigarettes and had double pneumonia, I’d probably die, on my own, in a lonely plastic tent.’
The Grand Tour host was isolating in a cottage with his girlfriend Lisa Hogan, 46, and her children. He admitted being unsure who he was allowed to have contact with.
His children from his marriage to second wife Frances Cain visited him on Christmas Day for 40 minutes and shared a glass of champagne with him from a distance in the garden under tier 2 rules. Mr Clarkson expressed his concerns about the lack of understanding of Covid-19: ‘I don’t even know if I’m better now. Seriously, I have absolutely no idea.’
He also criticised the BBC over the pandemic, claiming its coverage was only serving to frighten the public rather than help improve awareness of the virus.
‘If there’s ever an award for truly lamentable journalism, the BBC’s News at Six team should win it for its efforts last year,’ he said.
‘Its message has been constant. You’re going to die. And the Tories are to blame.
‘Maybe the BBC should consider this and in future stop asking clever-clever questions designed to make Boris look foolish, and instead ask clever questions that will help us understand something that scares us.’
• US broadcasting legend Larry King is in ‘ the fight of his life’ against Covid-19. The 87-year-old chat-show presenter was taken to an LA hospital ten days ago.
A source said: ‘Larry’s a fighter but this is the fight of his life.’