Jamie Oliver, who is fronting a new Christmas cooking show on Channel 4, has revealed he was temped to ‘pull a cord’ and escape as he faced a tough ordeal alongside his wife, Jools Oliver
Jamie Oliver, 50, has admitted he and his wife Jools Oliver, 51, “had to make a decision” about the future during a rough patch sparked by the TV star’s career in the spotlight.
Speaking on an episode of the This Is TASTE podcast, TV chef Jamie opened up about the early days of his meteoric rise to fame, after he caught the eye of BBC producers who were filming in The River Cafe.
Channel 4‘s Jamie’s Cook-Ahead Christmas host said that although the experience was thrilling at first, he was soon subjected to “brutal” criticism “from every direction”, leading to a serious discussion with his other half.
Jamie recalled that when he landed his own show, The Naked Chef: “I was just so young. I was so excited for life. I was so excited to move out of my little village, which I adored, go to London. London was so full of excitement and opportunity and culture and just, like, excitement and always something on.
“And it was complete luck that I got dragged out of obscurity. You know, I was literally just like a skin and bone and a set of lips.”
Jamie confessed he was naive and didn’t realise how much scrutiny he would go on to face, adding: “I was a 23-year-old boy when it kicked off, 24 when I became famous and everything that goes with it. So I think I was just naive. And then it took me years to work it out.
“And then sort of, about, sort of four years in, I’m like, oh, like that was, you have the high, and then you get an a*** kicking and it’s like brutal from every direction.
“And then it’s sort of like, okay, I’ve got a little cord I can, like, metaphorically speaking, I can pull this cord now and sort of jettison out of this.”
Podcast host Matt Rodbard then suggested to Jamie: “You wanted that, you sought that in some ways. Of course you like the celebrity and the money was not bad, but you wanted to maybe not have the press, be on the front page.”
Jamie revealed in response: “Me and Jools had to make a decision. If we do it, we have to go all in. Like, you can’t half do it.”
The star went on to explain the idea to have his wife and five children appear on camera for his cooking shows, before some of the youngsters inevitably grew out of it, becoming “embarrassed” about being on TV with their parents.
He continued: “And then, really, the family represents what we knew food could represent, which is about, just like, cooking is a family affair, right? So we just be normal about it. We don’t have to push it.
“Jools is quite in the background to be fair, but she’s not switched off. She’ll turn up if she has to. As will the kids, in context, right?
“And as the kids go into teenage years, they’ll switch off for five years, like, ‘no way!’ Because my kids are still all embarrassed of me.
“But no, I think we could have jettisoned out of it, and we decided not to. And I think that’s the balance of life, right? You got to make choices and stick by them.”
Jamie’s Cook-Ahead Christmas airs on Monday December 8 at 8pm on Channel 4.
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