Clarkson moves to save his marriage

He has laughed off claims of an extramarital affair with a colleague and poured scorn on Twitter allegations that he had a fling with Jemima Khan.

But it seems Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been enjoying a more bachelor lifestyle of late – and is spending time away from the family home.

The star has revealed in suitably hangdog tones that he has recently moved into an unfurnished flat, only weeks after news emerged of an alleged infidelity.

And writing in his regular newspaper column yesterday, father-of-three Clarkson, 50, was in reflective mood, discussing in self-pitying fashion the trials facing the undomesticated lone male.

It was a barely concealed sign to the world that ‘things’ really aren’t what they used to be.

Proclaiming, perhaps tellingly, that we are ‘all slaves to the lives we lead’, he debates whether to give up all of his possessions and wonders how to fill his empty flat.

He morosely ponders whether he will be able to wash his own dishes, which suggests he has never even tried. But he rejects buying a washing machine after confessing he has never used one and doesn’t ‘understand’ them.

He wrote: ‘So, when I moved recently into an unfurnished flat I spent the first evening sitting on the floor, wondering what is essential and what, really, is not.

‘Obviously I’d need a fridge and a cooker. But what about a dishwasher? Could I not wash the pots myself? I decided that I could. I also decided that I could do without a washing machine. Though this is mostly because I’ve never used one. I don’t understand them. They seem to make no sense.

‘So no. I’d take my clothes to the launderette and let someone in a nylon overall wash them for me.’

Tellingly, he did not reveal why he was living in the London flat rather than at the £2 million home he shares with his wife Frances in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

He goes on to decide he would ‘definitely’ need a television, coffee machine and a PlayStation, admitting: ‘I can’t really live unless I spend at least an hour a day shooting Nazi zombies in the face.’

The list is complete when he adds the ultimate bachelor necessity – pornography.

‘And I’d need some pornography as well, so that would mean I’d need an internet,’ he mused.