Jeremy Clarkson - Personal Life

Personal Life

Clarkson was born in Doncaster to travelling salesman Edward Grenville Clarkson and teacher Shirley Gabrielle Ward. His parents, who ran a business selling tea cosies, put their son's name down in advance for a number of private schools with no idea how they were going to pay the fees, until at the last moment, when he was 13, they made two Paddington Bear stuffed toys for each of their children. These proved so popular that they started selling them through the business with sufficient success to be able to pay the fees for Clarkson to attend Hill House School, Doncaster and later Repton School. By his own account, he was expelled from Repton School for "drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself."Clarkson attended Repton School alongside Formula One engineer Adrian Newey.

Clarkson played the role of a public schoolboy, Taplin, in a BBC radio Children's Hour serial adaptation of Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings novels until his voice broke.

Clarkson is twice-married. His first wife was Alexandra James (now Hall). In May 1993 he married his manager, Frances Cain (daughter of VC recipient Robert Henry Cain) in Fulham. The couple currently live in the town of Chipping Norton, situated in the Cotswolds, with their three children. Clarkson is a member of the Chipping Norton set. Known for buying him car-related gifts, for Christmas 2007 Clarkson's second wife bought him a Mercedes-Benz 600. In September 2010 Clarkson was granted a privacy injunction against his first wife to prevent her from publishing claims that their sexual relationship continued after his second marriage. (See AMM v HXW) He voluntarily lifted the injunction in October 2011, commenting that: "Injunctions don’t work. You take out an injunction against somebody or some organisation and immediately news of that injunction and the people involved and the story behind the injunction is in a legal-free world on Twitter and the Internet. It’s pointless."

Clarkson's fondness for wearing jeans has been blamed by some for the decline in sales of denim in the mid 1990s, particularly Levi's, because of their being associated with middle aged men, the so-called 'Jeremy Clarkson effect'. After fashion gurus Trinny and Susannah labelled Clarkson's dress sense as that of a market trader, he was persuaded to appear on their fashion makeover show What Not to Wear in order to avoid being considered for their all-time worst dressed winner award. Their attempts at restyling Clarkson were however all rebuffed, and Clarkson stated he would rather eat his own hair than appear on the show again.

For an episode of the first series of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast in November 2004, Clarkson was invited to investigate his family history. It included the story of his great-great-great grandfather John Kilner (1792–1857), who invented the Kilner jar: a container for preserved fruit.

Clarkson is reportedly a big fan of the rock band Genesis and attended the band‘s reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium in 2007. He also provided sleeve notes for the reissue of the album Selling England by the Pound as part of the Genesis 1970–1975 box set. He uses his love for Genesis to mock his fellow presenter of BBC Top Gear, Richard Hammond.

Clarkson has been involved in a protracted legal dispute about access to a "permissive path" across the grounds of his second home on the Isle of Man since 2005, after reports that dogs had attacked and killed sheep on the property. Clarkson and his wife had claimed that four sheep were deliberately killed after being chased into the sea by a dog let off its lead. He eventually lost the dispute after the Isle of Man government started a public inquiry and was told to re-open the footpath in May 2010. The decision was affirmed by the Isle of Man High Court.

Clarkson is also an avid birdwatcher, his favourite bird apparently being the Peregrine Falcon. He is a Chelsea F.C. supporter..