Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson revealed he was told he “probably” had cancer, two days before the “fracas” with Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon, although he has since been given the all-clear.
Writing in his column for the Sunday Times, Clarkson wrote: " Two days before the 'fracas' I'd been told, sternly, by my doctor that a lump on my tongue was probably cancer and that I must get it checked out immediately.
" But I couldn't do that. We were in the middle of a Top Gear series. And Top Gear always came first."
He also described how he became obsessed with his work on the BBC2 motoring show following the break-up of his marriage and the death of his mother.
"It was an all-consuming entity, a many-tentacled global monster that was dysfunctional and awkward and mad but I loved it with a passion," he wrote. "I loved it like my own child."
He also added that he is already thinking about his next television project.
“I have lost my baby but I shall create another," he wrote.
“I don’t know who the other parent will be or what the baby will look like, but I cannot sit around any more organising my photograph album.”
After being axed for attacking Top Gear producer Tymon, splitting his lip and verbally abusing him, Clarkson said he considered turning his back on presenting altogether in the immediate fall-out.
He told the Sunday Times: “Let’s stop being silly and pick up the pieces and start again … I just know I’m going to do another car show.”
