JEREMY Clarkson joked that he is banned from emptying the dishwasher after having life-saving heart surgery.
The Clarkson’s Farm star told how he was days from death in the major health hazard.
Jeremy, 64, revealed he needed surgery to clear blocked arteries after feeling ill on a recent holiday.
Last night he told The Sun: “I’m very grateful to everyone who has sent messages of support, but I’m fine.
“I just don’t have to do any manual labor or empty the dishwasher for the next four years.
“At least I think that’s what the doctor said.”
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Clarkson first felt unwell while on a break on an island in the Indian Ocean.
He wrote in The Sunday Times: “I was sitting at the breakfast table and when I got up to go I had to take a moment to make sure my limbs were working properly.”
He later had problems trying to dive, swim and walk, which continued after his vacation.
One day he felt “clumsy and there was a pressure in my chest”.
And later, after working on his Cotswolds farm – which features in his Amazon Prime hit series – a doctor was called when he noticed “pins and needles” in his left arm.
Jeremy was then taken by ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
He said: “It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the other of three was going that way.
“The question was this.
“Were the arteries so damaged that I needed an emergency heart bypass?
“Or could he use Dyno Rods and ultrasound rams to dislodge them before inserting a stent?
“Mercy, this turned out to be possible.”
Jeremy, who also hosts ITV’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, continued: “I was in the operating theatre.
“Because my bankruptcy was definitely just around the corner. Days away? “Maybe”, he (a doctor) said.
A stent was then inserted into the blocked artery to keep it open and restore blood flow to the heart.
Jeremy said: “It wasn’t particularly painful. Just weird.”
He returned home the next day and said he thought, “Crikey, that was close.”
He has previously said he is worried about his health, admitting: “I don’t have long left.”
Jeremy has also shared fears of developing dementia and admits his “memory is shot”.
And he was fitted with hearing aids last year.
But the star has shown no signs of slowing down with a new book about life at Diddly Squat Farm.
Series four of Clarkson’s Farm is also in production.
Earlier this year Jeremy opened a refurbished pub – The Farmer’s Dog – near Burford, Oxon.