Jeremy Clarkson has claimed being bullied in boarding school helped to ‘sharpen him up’ and make him the man he is today.
The Grand Tour co-presenter, 60, reflected on his time at Repton School in a chat with Andy Jaye for his podcast on Tuesday, where he said the horrific things he was subjected to by bullies had actually helped him, in a way.
In his Sunday Times column in 2015, Jeremy revealed his bullies would often beat him and break his personal items, and they would even force him to lick the toilets clean in particularly cruel incidents.
Looking back: Jeremy Clarkson claimed on Tuesday that getting bullied at boarding school helped ‘sharpen him up’ and made him the man he is today
Speaking to Andy about how he felt the bullying had, in some ways, been a help rather than a hindrance, he said: ‘The first two years I got bullied, and I have to be careful how I phrase this, I don’t necessarily think in my case the bullying I got for the first few years was a bad thing.
‘I think it sharpened me up and brought me to my senses. I appreciate that for many, many, many people bullying is horrific but it just wasn’t for me particularly.’
Continuing to reflect, he went on: ‘I mean it was horrible to suffer from it but I look back and I am grateful for what it made me become, if that makes sense.’
Jeremy ended up being expelled from the boarding school, but he told Andy he was happy about it as it meant he went down the path of journalism, which kick-started his career in the industry and led to his current fame.
Grim: In his Sunday Times column in 2015, Jeremy revealed his bullies would often beat him and break his personal items, and they would even force him to lick the toilets clean
Upon reflection: Jeremy (pictured in February) claimed the bullying helped him in some ways, as he said: ‘I think it sharpened me up and brought me to my senses’
In his 2015 column, Jeremy said of his school days: ‘I was thrown on an hourly basis into the icy plunge pool, dragged from my bed in the middle of the night and beaten, made to lick the lavatories clean and all the usual humiliations that public school used back then to turn a small boy into a gibbering, sobbing suicidal wreck.’
He also discussed how his bullies would also go out of their way to destroy his personal belongings, saying they ‘broke pretty much everything [he] owned.’
And he explained: ‘They glued my records together, snapped my compass, ate my biscuits, defecated in my tuck box and cut my trousers in half with a pair of garden shears, but I made sure when I heard them coming that my watch was safely locked away.’
On Saturday, the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter revealed he tested negative for the coronavirus as he shared a shot of his COVID-19 Antigen test.
The test showed a single line, which indicates a negative result while two lines means a positive.
Sharing his delight, Jeremy simply captioned the photo, which saw his swaps strewn around the rapid-testing equipment: ‘Let’s rock’.
It is not known whether Jeremy took the test as he was showing symptoms of the coronavirus, was in contact with someone who had contracted the disease or simply taking one in line with health and safety guidelines on TV sets.
Delight: On Saturday, the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter (pictured in 2019) revealed he tested negative for the coronavirus after taking a COVID-19 Antigen test
MailOnline contacted Jeremy Clarkson’s representatives for comment at the time.
Medakit’s COVID-19 Antigen test used by Jeremy can detect an active coronavirus infection within 15 minutes
According to the website, ‘the test is being widely used around the world as a mass-testing device. It offers a qualitative and immediate detection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
‘It can be used for rapid screening of carriers of the virus that are symptomatic or asymptomatic.’
Health: The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter shared a shot of his COVID-19 Antigen test that showing a single line that indicates it’s negative