Jeremy Clarkson sparks farm wages row as Kaleb Cooper fumes over ‘young apprentice’ swipe | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV
Kaleb Cooper might be almost 40 years younger than 62-year-old Jeremy Clarkson, but he fiercely rallied against the suggestion that he’s the Clarkson’s Farm star’s “young apprentice”. The farmer insisted all he has learnt from his older mentor is “TV” and the geographical location of countries like Africa, while telling Jeremy he’ll “never pick up” certain skills.
In the Performance People Podcast, Jeremy looked at his young sidekick with affection as he mused: “He is my young apprentice, but then he knows more about it than I do, which is weird.”
Kaleb pulled a grimacing face, before shooting back: “I’m not your young apprentice!”
The pair regularly take swipes at each other, in what some viewers have branded a “battle of egos”.
Earlier this week, it was even revealed that Kaleb had stormed off the farm after slamming Jeremy’s “stupidest idea yet” – his plan to become a pig farmer.
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Back on the podcast, Jeremy quibbled with his co-star over the “apprentice” description, reasoning: “Well, you’re young and I pay your wages!”
“You pay some of my wages. I should be paid for looking after you!” Kaleb declared.
“You ARE paid for looking after me actually,” Jeremy quipped.
When the podcast hosts asked what Kaleb felt he’d learnt from Jeremy, there was a long pause, during which he looked at his co-star in embarrassment.
“Television,” he finally decided, before adding “and a bit of geography – I know where Africa is now!”
Jeremy sounded more appreciative when he was asked what he had learnt from his young co-star, marvelling: “The list goes on and on!”
“I still haven’t learnt to attach anything to the back of a truck,” he joked.
“I don’t think you ever will. You’re not gonna learn that. That’s not a skill you’re going to pick up, okay? I’m doing it forever for you,” Kaleb told him.
Sheepish Jeremy admitted: “When it comes to how to attach the tractor, there simply isn’t the space in my head. I’m just not practical!”
Meanwhile, the pair’s war of words on the show have regularly made for compelling viewing.
Kaleb has on occasion been forced to drag Jeremy’s £40,000 Lamborghini tractor out of ditches after he crashed it, before scoffing that to Jeremy, the valuable equipment is just an “ornament”.
He hasn’t held back on calling him a “f***ing idiot”, either, as Jeremy gets to grips with the challenging lifestyle of a farmer.
Kaleb previously admitted he’d never read a book before – and the first one he picked up, Jeremy’s Diddly Squat: One Year On the Farm, featured colourful insults about him.
However, dismissing the claim that he is a “tractor driver”, Kaleb hit back in an interview with the Times: “That’s f***ing shit. I’m a farm manager. I’m the boss. It’s Kaleb’s Farm, secretly.”
Jeremy took to the Times this week to explain that, after hearing his plans to branch out into pig farming, Kaleb rolled his eyes at him.
The Amazon Prime star joked of his rapid departure after he broke the news: “He got into his pick-up truck and went to Cornwall for a week!”
