Harriet Cowan, the 25-year-old farmer who became the standout star of Clarkson’s Farm’s fourth series, has delivered a health update on her co-star Jeremy Clarkson.
The 66-year-old presenter revealed during the fifth series finale that he had been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer, though it had been detected at a very early stage.
A few weeks after the finale’s broadcast, Mr Clarkson announced he was in remission, describing himself as “without a doubt, officially, the world’s luckiest man.”
He explained further in his Sunday Times column: “It was an aggressive type of cancer. It could have spread, it could have gone into the pancreas, it could have gone anywhere, and that would have been trouble.”
Harriet Cowan shot to fame on Clarkson’s Farm
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GETTYNow, two months on, Ms Cowan has offered a reassuring update on Mr Clarkson’s health.
“Yeah, he’s alright now,” Ms Cowan confirmed in a new interview with The Telegraph. “He’s happy, he’s farming, he’s back on a tractor.”
Her encouraging words echo those of Mr Clarkson’s former Top Gear co-star Richard Hammond, who was similarly quizzed on the 66-year-old’s wellbeing by Times Radio.
“I believe he’s fine. It was some distance in the past, because obviously there’s a time lag between when the show happened and when they’re seen on the show,” Mr Hammond explained.
Jeremy Clarkson announced he was in remission earlier this year
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GETTY“But no, I believe he’s very well; he’s still irritating, all of those things. Generally speaking, it means he’s alive.”
And speaking on Channel 5’s Matt Allwright earlier this month, James May similarly provided an update.
“I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, and I think he’s over the hurdle,” the Grand Tour star confirmed.
Elsewhere during her interview with The Telegraph, Derbyshire native Ms Cowan also touched upon her relationship with Clarkson’s Farm co-star Kaleb Cooper.
Ms Cowan temporarily replaced the 28-year-old farmhand at Diddly Squat, which led to a frosty reception upon his return to the Cotswolds farm following his tour.
“I understand why he was p****d off and I’m not going to lie, he was,” she said. “But it wasn’t because of me as a person, or me as a woman.”
Shedding light on the real reason for Mr Cooper’s ire, Ms Cowan said: “It was because he’d been away for so long on a tour bus.”
Mr Cooper had spent eight weeks travelling around the country on a book tour, far from his family and the tractors he loves.
Ms Cowan expressed sympathy for his frustration, describing him as a fellow homebody who simply wanted to be back on the land.
Returning to discover that somebody else had been carrying out his duties was understandably galling, she reasoned.
Despite the frosty start, the pair have since resolved their differences. Ms Cowan told the publication that she and Mr Cooper “cleared the air completely” after he settled back into the rhythms of farm life.
“He just needed to get back into farming,” she explained. “We realised we’re both just farmers, and now we’re great friends.”
Jeremy Clarkson shared his cancer diagnosis in season 5 of Clarkson’s Farm
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PRIME VIDEOAs for a return to Clarkson’s Farm, the former nurse said she has no firm plans to appear again, though she would not rule it out entirely.
“It’s just a long way away to drive, and I’ve just bought a farm so… life is busy,” she said.
Mr Clarkson has indeed returned to filming, with cameras rolling on a sixth series at Diddly Squat Farm.
He was spotted with the Amazon Prime crew in June whilst hosting the Cereals arable trade show on the property, where a record-breaking crowd of more than 25,000 visitors attended.