Jeremy Clarkson has revealed his children had considered not returning to the UK after taking a dream holiday in central America.
The former Top Gear star, 65, shares two daughters, Emily, 30, and Katya, 24, and son, Finlo, 27, with his ex-wife Frances Cain, to whom he was married from 1993 to 2014.
He has been open in his criticism of higher taxation policies and blasted Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ budget - which brought in increases in property and council tax for the wealthiest - in his new column for the Sunday Times.
He slammed “young people with pink hair chanting ‘tax the rich’” and argued that any budding entrepreneurs have been hindered massively.
Clarkson said a holiday to the “jungle surf town” of Costa Rica with his family has opened their eyes to a different way of life.
He said the Central American country is “exclusively populated by an international smorgasbord of extraordinarily beautiful, peace-loving young people”.
The Clarkson’s Farm star discussed the appeal of “nature’s bounty”, spending their afternoons surfing and people operating boutique businesses with “one or two” shops and not a capitalistic “empire”.
“My own children started to buy into this. They considered not coming back to the UK, and who can blame them?” he wrote.
“In the UK it’s difficult to get on the bottom rung of the ladder and impossible to climb up it, because Reeves doesn’t believe in that sort of thing; not at her core. It revolts her.
“I suspect she’d like it if we all adopted a Costa Rican surfer lifestyle. It’s green and friendly and kind and everyone has a dog.”
Despite praising the slower pace of life, Clarkson concluded by admitting he couldn’t do it long-term as he would struggle to afford the airfare for a “couple of weeks in paradise”.
The presenter currently runs his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds and the nearby pub, The Farmer’s Dog.
He launched the revamped Cotswolds pub last August and has been keeping fans updated with the highs and lows of the pub business, from being swindled out of £28,000 by hackers to dealing with food intolerance fraud.
In October, he complained about the “baffling” toilet habits of customers.
When asked what he has “learnt” about running a pub, he said in an Instagram video: “It's difficult and it’s confusing and it’s hard work. Baffling.
“The thing that baffles me most of all - forgive me for this - but people go to the lavatory, sit on it and somehow miss the bowl and I cannot understand how they’re doing it!”
He added jokingly: “And apparently you're not allowed to put CCTV in the cubicles so we'll never know.”
Gesturing in frustration, the bewildered presenter went on: “It's just... how have you got it all over the floor and up the walls?
“There's a lot to infuriate me.”
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? star added that, on the upside, he believes he has built up a dedicated following of customers who appreciate his pub for only serving food that has been reared or harvested on his nearby farm.
