Jeremy Clarkson has taken aim at an eerily ‘realistic’ AI hoax which claimed that his friend and co-star Gerald Cooper had died.
Writing in his column, the former Top Gear host shared how he’d seen a series of posts on Facebook, each outlining a number of disasters which had supposedly occurred on Clarkson’s Farm.
These included the ‘news’ that his dry stonewall expert and ‘head of security’, Gerald, who was diagnosed with cancer during series three of the show, had died.
The offending posts also claimed that his partner Lisa had left him, that he’d broken his leg, and that father-of-three Kaleb Cooper had welcomed another child.
These stories – all entirely fake – came accompanied with AI-generated images to back up their outrageous claims.
Branding these fabrications as ‘complete nonsense,’ Jeremy urged those responsible to ‘pack it in.’
In his column for The Sun, Jeremy described what had occurred, writing: ‘On Facebook this week, we heard from just my farm alone that Gerald has died, Kaleb has had another kid, Lisa has left me, and I’ve broken my leg.
‘All of the stories were accompanied by a completely realistic photograph. And all of them were complete nonsense.’
He continued: ‘Do I mind? Yes. Mostly because Gerald is unused to being in the public eye, and it worries him that his kids see this kind of thing online.
‘So whoever’s doing it, pack it in.’
He signed off with a request that AI users ‘stop digitally removing clothes as well,’ in reference to a series of recent controversies over X’s Grok feature.
Back in 2024, fan-favourite Gerald revealed that he had been declared cancer-free after treatment for prostate cancer.
Gerald’s diagnosis came as the crew were filming the third series of the Amazon Prime TV show – with Jeremy learning that his colleague had been taken ill during one episode.
Later on, Jeremy said: ‘I’ve been phoning around, doctors and things I know, and his odds are really good, but it’s scaring him to death.’
He continued: ‘I know he doesn’t understand and he’s bewildered because, for obvious reasons, somebody said, “Look, I’m sorry it’s cancer”, and that’s all he heard. He’s desperately upset, terrified. Poor man.’
Thankfully, Gerald made a full recovery, with a statement in June 2024 revealing that he was now ‘happy and cancer-free.’
Speaking at the time, Gerald said: ‘It [his cancer diagnosis] was a shock, but everyone has really supported me. The charity [Prostate Cancer UK] were great, I made it through and am now cancer-free.’
Jeremy scarcely needs AI-generated bad news when the reality of farming life can be tough enough.
Last month, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host and Farmer’s Dog landlord described the situation at his pub as ‘still pretty terrible.’
Positing that Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour cabinet ‘hate business,’ Jezza lashed out at rising taxes and bills in the hospitality industry.
‘The rateable value would shoot up from £27,250 to £55,000, and when you factor in the national insurance rise, which has upped our wage bill by £42,000 a year, we’d be up a gum tree,’ Jeremy claimed in his column for The Times.
‘Because how can you pass this on to customers when they have a £2 billion gas bill to pay, and they can’t get there anyway because of the new drink driving rules.
‘It’s not that [Labour] don’t understand business, they actively hate it,’ Jeremy added.
This, in turn, follows a rough old year for Clarkson’s Farm in 2025.
Last August, Jeremy took to social media to bemoan the ‘catastrophic’ state of the year’s crops, while also complaining about the government’s lack of support.
‘That should be a worry for anyone who eats food,’ he said on X.
‘If a disaster on this scale had befallen any other industry, there would be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.’
He clarified: ‘I planted 400,000 beetroot. Two grew.’
The business was also beset by tragedy when the farm was hit by an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
bTB is one of the biggest challenges facing the cattle farming industry in the UK, and all infected animals have to be put down.
Announcing the news, Jeremy said on social media: ‘Bad news from Diddly Squat. We’ve gone down with TB. Everyone here is absolutely devastated.’
This, in turn, came at the same time as the death of one of the farm’s beloved puppies.
‘Honestly, farming? I’m not enjoying it this week,’ he said at the time.
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