Jeremy Clarkson has joked about his cancer diagnosis, telling the Sunday Times that he has arranged things so that he lives for at least another seven years.
The British broadcaster said he has a tax plan behind the joke. He was referring to a rule of British inheritance tax law, under which a gift can become fully exempt from inheritance tax if the person who made it survives for at least seven years afterwards. He added that, in reality, it is now six more years he needs, and that if he happens to die after that point, he will be happy.
Prostate cancer diagnosis
Clarkson revealed last June that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He has since said the disease is now in remission, and he wants to enjoy the small moments of everyday life despite the habits he has had to adopt since the diagnosis.
Clarkson is best known for presenting the BBC motoring show Top Gear for more than a decade before moving to Amazon with fellow presenters Richard Hammond and James May to make The Grand Tour. He has more recently become known for Clarkson's Farm, the series that follows his efforts running a farm in Oxfordshire.
Giving up the strict diet
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Clarkson said he has felt well in recent weeks following the treatment he underwent. Now that his test results are clear, he admitted he is abandoning the low-fat, high-protein diet he had adopted while prioritising his health.
He said that of course he could eat less and more healthily, that he could become a vegan, and that yes, he could go on 20-mile hikes and walk 20,000 steps a day.
But he said the truth is that life needs some joy in it, and that giving up drinking and giving up a pork chop means less joy in life. He said he did not work like a dog for 40 years just to have no joy in his old age, and that he intends to enjoy his life now that he has grown older.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting men, and under Britain's inheritance tax rules, gifts made more than seven years before a person's death are generally free of the tax, a threshold commonly known as the seven-year rule.
