He’s best known for keeping Jeremy Clarkson in check on Diddly Squat Farm, but Clarkson’s Farm star Kaleb Cooper may be in need of some help himself after his barn went up in flames.
The reality TV star works as a farming contractor, running the Chipping Norton farm owned by former Top Gear host Clarkson and documented on his Prime Video series. He also owns his own small farm, where he tends to crops and animals and lends out machinery and services.
On Wednesday (22 April), Cooper, 27, shared that a building at his farm had gone up in flames, as he posted a picture to Instagram Stories of his barn billowing with smoke, while the contents looked blackened.
“I’m having a bad day. Anyone got any straw lost all mine [sic],” Cooper captioned the post, which he shared with his three million followers.
The break-out star of Prime Video series Clarkson’s Farm, Chipping Norton native Cooper had worked at Diddly Squat Farm for its previous owner before TV personality Clarkson bought the land.
The show, now a mega-hit for Prime, first came out in 2021, and saw Cooper showing Clarkson, 66, the ropes when it came to running a working farm. Father-of-three Cooper set up his own TV company in the wake of the show airing, and now runs the business alongside his farming company, K Cooper Contracting and K Cooper Holdings.
Cooper’s success on the show was so great that, within four years of it first airing, he’d made his first million.
Cooper, who does not come from a farming background, used fame on the show to spin off into his own media ventures.
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He released his own books, The World According to Kaleb for adults and Kaleb’s Farmyard Tales for children, with a solo spin-off series, about him temporarily moving to Australia for work, on the way. The series, titled Kaleb: Down Under, will also be released on Prime Video.
Cooper will be back on our screens this spring, as Clarkson’s Farm returns for its fifth series on 3 June.
Last month, Cooper, who shares three children with fiancée Taya, shared a candid health update with his fans through social media.
Sitting in his tractor while he filmed the video, Cooper explained that he was suffering from shingles, a viral infection which can cause a painful rash.
Saying that he had “never been in so much pain”, Cooper said: “I thought only old people get that and no disrespect if you’ve got it and you’re maybe old. Honestly, it’s like pins and needles continually in your body.”