By
Michael Seamark
Last updated at 10:10 AM on 5th April 2011
Jeremy Clarkson enjoyed a drunken test drive with his alleged mistress Phillipa Sage – and boasted about it in his newspaper column.
The Top Gear presenter, 50, discussed ‘leggy’ Miss Sage, 42, as they were chauffeur-driven in the back of Maserati during the New Zealand leg of the Top Gear Live Tour last year.
Clarkson enthused about the drive in his motoring column under the title ‘Lie back, leggy Phillipa, while I have some fun’.
Amid the allegations he had an affair with the blonde colleague, Clarkson has shrugged them off as he holidays in Barbados with his wife Frances, 49, and their three children.
Display of unity: Clarkson and his wife Frances spent the day on a boat in Barbados while he also spent time racing around on a jet-ski
Referring to Miss Sage in a March 2010 column in The Times, Clarkson wrote: ‘In the Maserati, however, there was space behind Nigel (driver) for our green-room director, Philippa, who’s so tall she’s actually measured in hands.’
Meanwhile, Clarkson appeared not to have a care in the world as he spent yesterday on a speedboat and racing around on a jet-ski wearing
loud Bermuda shorts in the Caribbean.
Single mother, Miss Sage said reports of a romance were ‘nonsense’, insisting:
‘Jeremy and I are friends. I have worked with him, er, them (the Top
Gear team) for years.’
Soaking up the sun: Clarkson takes a stroll on the beach yesterday after the claims came to light
When told she had been seen entering Clarkson’s hotel suite in the
early hours, unmarried Miss Sage, who has a five-year-old son, said:
‘What? I often stay in colleagues’ hotel rooms – that’s not unusual.
‘I have been pictured with Jeremy several times, dozens of times, while working on the show. We are just friends.’
Clarkson’s mother Shirley also angrily dismissed the allegations,
insisting: ‘It’s a load of rubbish. He’s right now on holiday with his
wife and children, happy as Larry. He sent me a text on Mother’s Day
saying, “I hear the Press think I’m Tiger Woods – don’t worry, I’m
not!”.’
Under the headline ‘Clarkson’s Mistress’, the Daily Mirror claimed
Miss Sage had spent several nights with Clarkson as he and his
co-presenters, Richard Hammond and James May, toured Australia, South
Africa and Norway.
Last month the party checked into Oslo’s £500-a-night Grand Hotel.
After the Top Gear show, Clarkson and Miss Sage – who shared a
chauffeur-driven car to the venue – were alleged to have gone to his
corner suite at 1.15am.
The next evening Hammond and May sat at the other end of the hotel’s
rooftop bar from Clarkson and Miss Sage, who reportedly sat together
under separate blankets drinking white wine.
Shortly after 1am, he said goodnight and, it was claimed, ‘kissed
Phillipa on the lips in full view of the group and public’. Moments
after Clarkson left, she was said to have slipped out of the bar and
walked with him to his suite, remaining there all night.
On the final show of the tour, on March 27, the newspaper claimed the
couple again spent the night together before flying back to the UK,
where Clarkson was reunited with his wife, also his manager, and their
children, aged 16, 15 and 12.
Rubbishes claims: Clarkson has laughed off accusations that he has been having an affair with Phillipa Sage. Pictured while on the Top Gear Tour last month
Clarkson has been married to Frances for
18 years and she has masterminded the TV star’s multi-million-pound
career.
The newspaper claimed his affair had also been going on in Australia
and South Africa earlier last month.
The couple were photographed by the
pool at a Johannesburg hotel, where it was claimed Clarkson was seen
‘feeding Phillipa lettuce with his fingers’. It was claimed he went to
his room alone but was later followed by her.
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Married: Jeremy was seen with wife of 18 years Frances as they left Scotts restaurant last month before he headed to Oslo on Top Gear tour
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Jeremy Clarkson boasted about ‘test drive fun’ with ‘mistress’ in newspaper column