Richard Hammond has given an update on Jeremy Clarkson's health, saying he believes his former co-star is "fine" and "still irritating" after his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Hammond's comments on Clarkson's condition
Appearing on Times Radio, Hammond, 56, was asked about the current condition of his 66-year-old former colleague. He responded: "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. But no I believe he's very well, he's still irritating, all of those things. Generally speaking it means he's alive."
Earlier this year, Clarkson revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and received treatment, later saying he was in remission. The diagnosis and its aftermath were featured on the Amazon Prime show Clarkson's Farm.
Clarkson's own account of his cancer battle
Speaking to The Times earlier this summer, Clarkson described how close he came to a worse outcome. He said: "I am without a doubt, officially, the world's luckiest man. 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."
In a video posted on his Instagram page, he added: "You will have noticed that I'm not dead. The reason why I'm fine is because the doctors caught the prostate cancer early, and they caught it early because I got tested."
Clarkson's cancer diagnosis followed heart surgery in 2024 to clear blocked arteries with stents. Since his cancer story, he has helped raise awareness of prostate cancer and encouraged more men to get checked.
Hammond's own health struggles
While Hammond has not given a major update on his own health, he has said he is still living with the consequences of his jet car crash nearly 20 years ago in 2006. He was driving a Vampire jet car at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire when the front right tyre punctured at close to 300mph, sending him off the runway and into the grass. He later fell into a coma after suffering a frontal lobe brain injury.
The former Grand Tour presenter has admitted to suffering from "lost key syndrome," which some speculated could be dysexecutive syndrome, a condition associated with frontal lobe damage. Explaining how his everyday life changed, he told LADBible: "I think anybody who's suffered a brain injury will probably agree that it never leaves you in the sense that there's always a little bit of you [confused] if you lose your car keys or you forget something.
"Mine was a frontal lobe injury, which would explain that. I'm left thinking, 'Oh no. Is that because of the brain injury? Or is it because I'm now 54? Is it just because I've lost my keys? The doctors actually call it 'lost key syndrome' and it goes on and on."
