Jeremy Clarkson had secret surgery to remove cyst from his back

Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he went under the knife last year to have a 5cm cyst removed from his back - and he actually had the operation moved forward by a week to escape a spa break with his girlfriend Lisa Hogan

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson has gone under the knife to have a cyst removed from his back.

The 'Clarkson's Farm' presenter, 63, had the secret surgery in October last year and he revealed he had the operation moved forward by a week so he could escape a "miserable" spa break with his girlfriend Lisa Hogan because being in hospital would be "more fun".

He told The Sun newspaper, Clarkson explained: "I had a 5cm cyst, which is now not a cyst any more. Lisa took me to a health farm and, well, it was so miserable there that I thought, ‘I’ve got to have this cyst taken out at some point, I may as well go now’.

"So I checked out of the whole place and checked into hospital, because it was more fun having an operation than eating juniper berries all day long. As I lay under the surgeon’s knife, I thought ‘this is preferable’."

Clarkson went on to reveal the cyst was not cancerous, but he lost around a stone in weight due to the health scare. He added: "I did actually lose a stone though - mind you, half of that was probably the cyst. But it wasn’t cancer. It was never going to be cancerous though - I wasn’t in the mood."

He went on to reveal he has given up booze for Dry January, but he insisted he doesn't feel any healthier despite curbing his alcohol intake.

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Clarkson added: "I’m knackered all the time and the worst thing is I just cannot sleep. And then when I do nod off, I have ridiculous nightmares."

In a previous column for The Sunday Times newspaper, Clarkson wrote about his stay at the health spa and detailed how much he hated the experience.

He explained: "I was given a glass of something called wheatgrass. Now, I’ve eaten grasshoppers and tarantulas, and I once had a seven-day egg, which had a bit of beak and an eye in it. All of those things were pretty awful.

"But nothing - nothing - gets close to the gut-retching dreadfulness of wheatgrass ... It was all lost on me. I’d rather spend a week with Greta Thunberg at a kumbaya festival."