We are often advised: "Tis better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt.”
Unfortunately, it appears this particular stable door should be left flapping in the wind as Jeremy Clarkson’s ex-wife is finally let off the injunction leash and begins to tout her autobiography.
Alex Hall had previously written anonymously, “I have no name. I have no voice.” She has now reclaimed both and is shouting from the rooftops, while Clarkson may be regretting suppressing this coiled spring, who is now bouncing around the tabloids and networks like Zebedee.
Speaking on That Sunday Night Show, Alex Hall announced, “I respect his right to privacy. I’m not a kiss-and-tell person. I’m not about to blow the whistle. He’s blown it by getting the injunction.”
This week saw the Top Gear presenter do away with a superinjunction which had prevented Hall speaking out about her relationship with him, including her alleged affair with him following their divorce and his second marriage.
Clarkson had decided to do away with the court order because, he said, Twitter and Facebook meant it didn’t serve any purpose. Of his ex-wife’s claims, he said, “You can choose to believe her or not.”
Hall – accompanied on the show by her PR consultant, the redoubtable Max Clifford – attempted to construct a logical explanation for why she was putting on paper her intimate dealings with a man whose right to privacy she “respected”.
Hall explained that Clarkson took out the superinjunction out once she “paid him the courtesy” of informing him she was planning to write a book.
Hell hath no fury, it seems, like Alex Hall gagged. In court documents, their anonymity was assured by giving Clarkson and herself the initials of AMM and HXW respectively. In what sounded an oft-rehearsed line, Hall reflected this stood for “Angry Motor Mouth and Hurt Ex-Wife”.
There it seemed lay the heart of the matter, with Hall admitting her biggest regret was leaving the presenter in 1990 after a year of marriage. She has since married again and divorced.
Presenter Adrian Chiles and guests including Vic Reeves and Louis Spence all pressed her, asking exactly what else could be in the book, if not the affair, the details of which she claimed she had originally planned to omit.
“I’ve got a lot to say. I wanted to write my story. Jeremy was my ex-husband, that’s had an impact on my life. Just because I’m not famous doesn’t mean I haven’t had an interesting life.”
Her stalwart sidekick Clifford interjected at this point: “Why shouldn’t she be allowed to write a book if she wants to?”
Vic Reeves cut to the chase, asking her: “Apart from Jeremy, what have you done in your life?”
Answer: “I’ve had a load of life experiences, which people will be able to relate to... I don’t want to be famous (cue jeers from audience)... I’ve got an opinion on Jeremy so I can write about that. What’s interesting about me? You’ll have to read the book to find out.”
The only time Hall seemed stumped for an answer was when she was asked about the effect this book would have on Jeremy Clarkson’s current wife, Francie, and then acknowledged that it would hurt her.
But then she pointed out she’d been through “20 years’ worth of hell” herself. When pressed, she admitted she meant that ending the marriage in the first place was her biggest regret.
Presenter Chiles asked her, “With the affair, did you think you would get back together?”
This brought another big smile from Alex Hall. “You’ll have to buy the book.”
Any more TV appearances like this, and we really won’t have to. If any other celebrity is thinking of bringing a superinjunction to protect their intimate goings-on, watching Alex Hall just revving up may give them cause to think again.