What is Jeremy Clarkson's net worth and salary?
Jeremy Clarkson is an English television presenter, journalist, and writer who has a net worth of $70 million. He is best known as the host of the internationally acclaimed sports car show "Top Gear," which is consistently one of the most viewed television shows in the world.
Early Life
Jeremy Clarkson was born on April 11, 1960, in Doncaster, England, to Shirley and Edward. His parents put Clarkson's name down years in advance for private school, with no idea of how they were going to afford the tuition. Shortly before he was to begin school, his parents made two Paddington Bear toys for their children. They were so popular that they began selling them. However, they were soon served with a cease and desist notice from the legal team of Paddington Bear's creator, Michael Bond. Edward Clarkson went to London to meet with Bond's lawyer. He ended up meeting Bond in the elevator on the way to the meeting, and the two hit it off. Bond awarded the Clarksons the worldwide licensing rights to Paddington Bear. The income from this paid for Jeremy's schooling.
Clarkson has said that he was badly bullied and very unhappy while a student at Repton School. He attended Repton School at the same time as former "Top Gear" Executive Producer Andy Wilman and Formula One engineer Adrian Newey. He was eventually expelled from Repton School for a number of infractions.
Career
He is most widely known as the host of the internationally acclaimed sports car show "Top Gear," however, his first job was as a salesman for his parents' Paddington Bears business. He went on to work as a journalist for a number of newspapers, including the Rotherham Advertiser, Rochdale Observer, Wolverhampton Express and Star, and Shropshire Star. It was at the Shropshire Star where he got his first opportunity to write about cars. He started out writing about Peugeots and Fiats before working his way up to Range Rovers and Ford Granadas. After seven years, he was finally allowed to drive an Aston Martin Lagonda. After ten years, he got the chance to drive his first Lamborghini.
Clarkson formed the Motoring Press Agency (MPA) in 1984. He and fellow motoring journalist Jonathan Gill conducted road tests for newspapers and car magazines. He has been a regular contributor to Top Gear magazine since its debut in 1993.
In addition to hosting "Top Gear," Clarkson writes columns for The Sun, The Sunday Times, and the Toronto Star. Clarkson has written books about cars and several other subjects.
His first big television appearance was as the presenter/host of "Top Gear" in its original format from October 1988 to February 2000 and again from October 2002 to March 2015. Clarkson is largely credited with turning "Top Gear" into the most-watched show on BBC Two.
Clarkson also hosted the first UK version of "Robot Wars." From November 1998 to December 2000, he had a talk show called "Clarkson." He produced 27 half-hour episodes of the show, which featured guest interviews with musicians, politicians, and television personalities.
In 2007, Clarkson and co-host James May were the first people to reach the North Pole in a car, as shown on "Top Gear: Polar Special."
Clarkson was suspended by the BBC from "Top Gear" in March 2015 following a fight with one of the show's producers. Clarkson was angry that he had been offered soup and a cold meat platter while filming on location in Hawes, North Yorkshire. The chef had gone home, and what Clarkson was offered was all that was available. The BBC did not air the next episode of "Top Gear" or the final two episodes of the season after the incident in which Clarkson punched producer Oisin Tymon so hard that he required treatment at the hospital. Clarkson's contract with the BBC expired at the end of March, and a previously proposed three-year renewal was withdrawn.
On April 19, 2015, Clarkson took to his Sunday Times column to reveal that two days before he hit Tymon, he had been told by his doctor that he might have cancer of the tongue. It turned out that Clarkson did not have cancer. In November 2015, Tymon sued Clarkson and the BBC for racial discrimination over the verbal abuse he received in the March incident. The following February, Clarkson formally apologized to Tymon and settled the racial discrimination and personal injury claim for $130,000.
On July 30, 2015, Amazon announced that Clarkson and his former "Top Gear" co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May would host a new show called "The Grand Tour." The first season debuted on November 18, 2016. The series wrapped up its fourth season at the end of 2019.
(Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
Personal Life
In 1989, Clarkson married Alex Hall. She left him for one of his friends six months later. In May 1993, he married his manager, Frances Cain. They had three children. Cain filed for divorce in April 2014.
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 he married Cain.
Clarkson is a big fan of the progressive rock band Genesis. He attended the band's 2007 reunion concert at London's Twickenham Stadium. He also provided sleeve notes for the reissue of "Selling England by the Pound" as part of the "Genesis 1970-1975" box set.
Clarkson has owned several luxury vehicles including a Range Rover TDV8 Vogue SE, Mercedes-Benz 600 Grosser, Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG, Lotus Elise 111S, BMW M3 CSL, Mercedes CLK63 AMG Black, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster, Ferrari F355, Aston Martin Virage, Lamborghini Gallardo, Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6, McLaren 675LT, and more.
Historically, Clarkson has been unsympathetic to the green movement and has at times mocked groups like Greenpeace, calling them "eco-mentalists" that are a result of "old trade unionists and CND (campaign for nuclear disarmament) lesbians." He has called wind farms something that in the future will be "a reminder of the time when mankind temporarily took leave of its senses and decided wind, waves, and lashings of tofu could somehow generate enough electricity for the whole planet."
Salary Highlights
Considering the show's reach, Clarkson's Top Gear salary was a surprisingly modest $4 million per year. But don't feel too bad for Jeremy. In addition to his base salary, Clarkson owned 30% of the rights to Top Gear. That means he gets a cut of profits from all licensing deals, DVD sales, syndication, and merchandise. On top of his base salary, Clarkson typically earns an additional $7.5 – $13 million per year in dividends and bonuses from the show. In 2013, the BBC (which already owned 50% of the show) bought out all outstanding stakes to take full control of the Top Gear Empire. This transaction netted Clarkson roughly $21 million.
Real Estate
In 2012, Clarkson bought a five-bedroom cottage on 312 acres in the Cotswolds for $5.5 million. In 2018, he blew it up on "The Grand Tour." After the rubble was cleared, Clarkson had plans to build a six-bedroom, three-story mansion.
